Active discussion at the International Conference of the Spanish National Cancer Institute
The use of ‘intermittent fasting’, one of the dietary therapies, as an adjunctive therapy for cancer patients is under active review.
Eureka Alert, a portal run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported that the use of intermittent fasting for cancer treatment was discussed as a major agenda item at the ‘International Conference on Diet, Nutrition and Cancer’ held in the National Cancer Institute (CNIO) in Spain. .
“It is clear that diet is the root cause of the most common tumors today, especially gastrointestinal cancer, hormone-dependent breast cancer and prostate cancer,” said Dr. Stomach and bowel cancer is a malignant tumor that occurs in the oesophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. Hormone dependent breast cancer accounts for around 70% of all breast cancers.
Professor Walter Longo (gerontology and biologist), director of the Longevity Research Center at the University of Southern California, USA, said, “Meanwhile, studies on strategies similar to fasting to fight cancer have yielded good results, and now oncologists considers the use of this strategy along with standard therapies has begun,” he said. A paradigm shift is occurring in the field of cancer treatment.
Studies show that diet plays a very important role in the development of cancer. There is also an evaluation that a diet that uses nutrition has reached the stage of being used as a method of treating as well as preventing cancer. According to the results of a recent mouse experiment, intermittent fasting before chemotherapy helps heart cells maintain autophagy. In this case, intermittent fasting means drinking only water and not eating for 24 hours, says a team at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US.
“It is not a concept to treat cancer with diet, but to complement cancer treatment with a correct nutritional strategy,” said Dr. very loud,” he said.
Professor Longo of the University of Southern California, in his book The Longevity Diet, argued that intermittent fasting should be used as an adjunctive therapy for disease prevention and cancer treatment. This is because fasting can prevent the growth of malignant tumors. According to Professor Longo, tumor cells do not know how to stop the cycle and continue to function. On the other hand, healthy cells automatically stop all division processes when their energy supply is cut off. Chemotherapy targets proliferating cells as the main target of attack. When anticancer drugs are administered to patients in a fasting state, toxicity primarily affects tumor cells. Of course, it is possible to increase the dose of anticancer drugs.
Dr Alejo Efejan (cellular metabolism and signaling) at the National Cancer Institute in Spain predicted, “There are many things we need to know in the future, but cancer can be treated and prevented through nutritional strategies, diet, and changes in the function of related genes.”
