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Some studies suggest that fats and sugars can promote tumor growth. Accordingly, tumor starvation can reduce tumor growth. What is tumor starvation and what is 'tumour starvation'?
1. What is 'tumour starvation'?
Tumors are divided into two types which are benign tumors and malignant (cancerous) tumors. In which benign tumors are usually not dangerous, they may not be treated or are relatively simple to treat. On the other hand, malignant tumors (cancer) have a very fast growth rate and are easy to metastasize to other organs through the blood system and lymph nodes, difficult to treat and easy to recur. Therefore, at present, in the world, there are many methods that are tested and applied in the treatment of melanoma, one of which is the method of 'tumour starvation'.
'Tumor starving' can literally mean that we restrict the nutrient supply to the tumor, in order to minimize its growth.
In addition, we need to know a special mechanism that directly determines the growth, increase in size and number of tumors, that is vascular proliferation. For malignant tumors, vascular proliferation also provides nourishment to help them metastasize to distant organs. Malignant tumors have the ability to produce substances that stimulate abnormal blood vessel formation to bring more blood from the body to the tumor, allowing the tumor to receive more nutrients, grow and develop. faster. For cancer cells that have metastasized to other areas, there is also gradually forming a system of abnormally proliferating blood vessels responsible for providing nutrition and growing secondary malignancies. Thus, the presence of malignancies will be increasingly common, invading space as well as other cell nourishment.
So, reducing vascular proliferation is also a way to 'starve the tumor'
2. Some research results on diets to 'starve tumors'
The results of the study published in the journal Nature showed that pancreatic tumors in mice grew more slowly when they ate a calorie-restricted diet, specifically:
The researchers divided the mice with carriers. pancreatic tumors into groups:
Group with a low-calorie diet Group with a normal diet Group with a high-protein, high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet. As a result, only tumors in the low-calorie diet group grew more slowly, meaning that glucose levels directly affected tumor growth. The calorie-restricted diet and the keto diet both reduce glucose levels, but the calorie-restricted diet also reduces lipids. As is known, lipids are important components for building the protective outer membrane of all cells including cancer cells. So the high-fat keto diet may have provided all the lipids needed to create new cell membranes in tumors.
The results show that in order to slow tumor growth in these mice it is important to cut off the supply of glucose and lipids to the tumours, and only a calorie-restricted diet can do this. .
3. Learn to 'starve the tumor'
According to the results of studies in mice, a calorie-restricted diet has an effect on reducing tumor growth. However, the body's healthy tissues still need adequate nutrients, so cancer patients should not change their diet without clinical guidance from a doctor or specialist.
Some findings suggest that using diet or medication to limit the absorption of certain fats or the cells that use them may be a pathway to starving a tumor without killing the person. starve.
So what is a calorie-restricted diet?
Calorie restriction means reducing average daily calorie intake to below normal or habitual levels, without developing malnutrition or deficiencies in essential nutrients. In this diet, a person does not eat at all or limits their intake to certain times of the day, week, or month.
In addition to a calorie-restricted diet, we also know that angiogenesis also increases the amount of blood that nourishes the tumor to help the tumor grow faster. So adding foods or drugs that reduce blood vessel proliferation is also a way to 'starve the tumor'. Some foods that can reduce vascular proliferation have been studied: Tomato (lycopene in tomatoes has anti-angiogenic properties), red grapes, tea, strawberries,...
So, we already know that a 'tumour-starved' diet has been studied to reduce tumor growth. However, when implementing these diets, patients need to be closely monitored by doctors and nutritionists. Because we need to 'starve the tumor', but besides that, we still need to add enough nutrients to nourish the rest of the body.
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