Scientists have discovered that a 48-hour fast seems to protect the body’s healthy cells against the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.
This could solve a problem scientists have been grappling with for quite some time – how to target chemotherapy so it only destroys cancer cells, leaving healthy ones intact.
The scientists have found that it might be possible to deprive the healthy cells of food, needed for energy, which sends them into a state similar to survival mode, thereby becoming highly resistant to stress or damage. Similar to hibernation, almost.
Cancer cells, on the other hand, carry on growing and remain vulnerable to the effects of chemotherapy, so the starvation does not seem to have the same effect on them.
The result COULD be that doctors can cure more cancers by using higher doses of chemotherapy drugs to shrink or destroy tumours. Human trials have not yet been done, however.
These latest findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that depriving the body of calories in this way could also transform cancer care.
For the study, mice with cancer were starved for two days before being given a high dose of chemotherapy. As expected, the healthy cells survived the treatment with little damage, the tumor cells, however, were destroyed. Meanwhile, a separate group of mice were allowed to eat normally with the results that some actually died, and those who survived suffered severe weight and energy loss.
However, scientists warned: “Until these findings are confirmed in human trials, we strongly advise people undergoing cancer treatment to eat a healthy, balanced diet.”
I think that’s excellent advice, but let’s keep an eye on these developments and hope that there will be good news in the near future for cancer patients.
