Could Fasting Help Fight Cancer?

Emerging evidence suggests that fasting could play a role in the fight against cancer. However, studies to date have been relatively small and results have been mixed, leaving an unclear picture of how fasting could make this kind of impact.

Now, researchers at the University at Buffalo have shed some light on the subject, showing for the first time that intermittent fasting is able to increase the effectiveness of anti-androgen therapy in prostate cancer.

Proteins, carbohydrates and fats are essential nutrients, but they can also contribute to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells. So it’s no surprise that the typical Western diet, with its heavy animal fat and protein content, has been linked to increased incidence of cancer and poor prognosis.

Researchers have long studied diet as a way to reduce cancer risk and slow its progression. In preclinical models, caloric restriction reduces growth factors and hormones that fuel tumors.

“Dietary interventions should be seen as an adjuvant tool,” said Roberto Pili, corresponding author of the new study published in Cancer Research and associate dean for cancer research and integrative oncology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Pili and his team found that in mouse models of prostate cancer, alternate-day fasting lowered nutrient availability in tumors. This reduced androgen receptor expression and signaling, increasing the tumors’ response to enzalutamide, a standard anti-androgen therapy. Fasting also reduced amino acid levels and global protein synthesis within the tumors, further enhancing the drug’s effectiveness.

This benefit was consistent across multiple mouse models of prostate cancer.

Pili is recruiting patients for a clinical trial testing restricted eating in prostate cancer patients who are receiving hormone therapy and for a clinical trial testing a plant-based diet and caloric restriction for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. 

“The goal is to learn more about the impact of dietary restrictions on the biology of prostate cancer and perhaps in the future for other hormone-driven tumors, such as breast cancer,” said Pili.