In her latest ESMO perspectives On target column entitled Food for thought: dietary effects on tumor metabolism & progression, VHIO’s Elena Garralda, Principal Investigator of our Early Clinical Drug Development Group, and Director of VHIO’s Research Unit for Molecular Therapy of Cancer (UITM) – CaixaResearch, considers the mounting evidence pointing to dietary interventions as influencers of tumor metabolism and disease progression.
Specifically, she briefly reviews the results from a recent study* that shed important new light on the subject by showing how low glycemic diets can alter lipid metabolism and slow tumor growth in PDX mouse models of pancreatic cancer.
While echoing the same caution as the study authors in recommending calorie-restricted diets for all cancer patients, she suggests that a deeper understanding of cancer cell dependency on the availability of unsaturated acids fatty acids might ultimately facilitate the development of future therapies aimed at more effectively stalling tumor growth.
To read Elena’s latest On Target column and access this month’s ESMO perspectives, please click here.
###
Reference:
*Lien EC, Westermark AM, Zhang Y, Yuan C, Li Z, Lau AN, Sapp KM, Wolpin BM, Vander Heiden MG. Low glycaemic diets alter lipid metabolism to influence tumour growth. Nature. 2021 Oct 20. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04049-2. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34671163.
