It is hoped the new research will help those suffering with pancreatic cancer in the long term (Picture: Getty Images)
A new type of cancer drug and a keto diet helps to ‘starve’ pancreatic cancer cells, a study suggests.
It is hoped these new findings will help people suffering from the cancer.
Only around 5% of people survive for a decade after diagnosis.
This study is still in its early stages and Pancreatic Cancer UK urged patients not to make any radical changes to their diets.
The drug has also not yet been tested on humans with pancreatic cancer.
Research from a team at UC San Francisco found a protein called eIF4E changes the body’s metabolism to switch to ‘fat consumption’ during fasting.
This same switch happens when an animal is on a keto diet – a diet based on high fat and low carbohydrates.
The same team found that a new cancer drug called eFT508, which is currently in clinical trials, blocked this protein, preventing the body from metabolising fat.
Researchers found when testing on mice that when cancer therapy blocks fat metabolism, which is the tumour’s only source of fuel when mice are on a keto diet, the cancer appeared to stop growing.
The research around the benefits of a keto diet are still in the early stages though (Picture: Getty Images)
Researchers wrote in the journal Nature: ‘Certain cancers can use ketone bodies as an alternative energy source to sustain cancer fitness, such as pancreatic tumours.’
Professor Davide Ruggero, senior author of the paper, said: ‘Our findings led us straight to the biology of one of the deadliest cancers, pancreatic cancer.
‘Our findings open a point of vulnerability that we can treat with a clinical inhibitor that we already know is safe in humans.
‘We now have firm evidence of one way in which diet might be used alongside pre-existing cancer therapies to precisely eliminate a cancer.’
‘We expect most cancers to have other vulnerabilities.
‘This is the foundation for a new way to treat cancer with diet and personalised therapies.’
Only around 5% of people survive pancreatic cancer after a decade (Picture: Getty Images)
Dr Chris Macdonald, head of research at Pancreatic Cancer UK, said: ‘Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest common cancer.
‘Over half of people diagnosed die within three months. In order to improve survival rates, we desperately need new ways to diagnose and treat this devastating disease.
‘Understanding how cancer cells are able to grow and spread so rapidly, and the ways in which this is fuelled, is a key area of research that could lead to new and more effective treatments.
‘However, this new study is early-stage research of a drug that has not yet been used in the context of pancreatic cancer in humans, as the research was carried out in mice, so we must treat these results with caution.
‘People with pancreatic cancer suffer considerably from malnutrition and inability to digest food as a result of their cancer.
‘Based on the current evidence, we would strongly advise that people with pancreatic cancer do not make any radical changes to their diet unless advised by a medical professional.’
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