Cancer is a metabolic disease, characterized by abnormalities in mitochondrial function. In fact, no cancerous tissue has yet been identified that demonstrates normal number or structure of mitochondria, as examined by electron microscopy. (ref)
As a result of the mitochondrial abnormalities, all cancer cells appear to depend on fermentation of glucose to lactate. Since lactate fermentation is less efficient than oxidative phosphorylation (what normal cells utilize), cancer cells require much higher amounts of glucose than normal cells.
Cancer Cells Require Glucose
Cancer cells also rely on the amino acid, glutamine, for growth and survival. Together, glucose and glutamine drive cancer growth.
The fact that cancer cells are entirely dependent on glucose or glutamine for metabolism offers a clear target for cancer treatment: restrict the fuel available to the cancer cells.
If cancer cells require specific nutrients to grow, a therapeutic approach to treating cancer should include restriction of said nutrients.
An analogous situation would be weaponizing food in warfare – choke off the food supply to troops to weaken them. Cutting off the supply lines was recognized as an effective means of weakening an army. In 1812, Napoleon’s army fell victim to Russia’s scorched-earth tactic which left nothing of value for them to forage upon. Multiple Chinese conflicts employed the same tactic. Even Abraham Lincoln approved of the tactic of starvation as a wartime tactic. (ref)
Famine makes greater havoc in an army than the enemy, and is more terrible than the sword.
Vegetius, De Re Militari, Book III1
crops in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered the
targeting of civilian property as a way of breaking Southerners’ will to fight.
Library of Congress
Starve the Cancer Cells
Restriction of glucose appears to be an effective strategy for weakening cancer cells and making them more susceptible to conventional treatments. There are different strategies for doing so.
-
Calorie Restriction
Calorie restriction has long been known to reduce tumor growth, due to limiting the supply of glucose.
-
Ketogenic diet
Dietary carbohydrate intake is the main dietary determinant of blood glucose. Restriction of carbohydrate intake has the most significant effect on decreasing glucose levels.
A ketogenic diet, low carbohydrate and high fat, reduces blood glucose levels. This glucose-lowering effect can be enhanced by physical activity which also has a glucose-lowering effect. With lower glucose levels, the body is forced to metabolize fat for energy, which generates ketones and fatty acids.
The ketogenic diet is significantly more effective than calorie restriction, likely due to its superior ability to lower glucose levels and increase ketone bodies. Ketones can also be toxic to some cancer cells.
-
Fasting
Fasting, a cessation of food intake, similarly results in decreased glucose levels along with forcing fat metabolism.
Summary
These tactics can be helpful in the setting of cancer by restricting the availability of a nutrient critical to survival of cancer cells – glucose. In the setting of low glucose levels, normal cells can still function due to their ability to utilize alternative nutrients such as fatty acids and ketones. This condition can be achieved by dietary modifications that induce a state of nutritional ketosis. Unlike the normal tissues of the human body, cancer cells are not able to efficiently utilize ketones. The presence of ketones and the relative deficiency of glucose create a hostile environment for cancer cells that may serve a valuable role in the management of malignancy.
Note: I am not at all suggesting that dietary strategies can or should replace the conventional treatments recommended by oncologists. These dietary strategies should be considered adjunctive strategies to improve one’s response and tolerance to conventional methods.
