Thanks, Mouse, this is a very good finding on Ketogenic Diet(KD) as an
alternative treatment for brain cancer... KD has been used for a long time as a
therapy for epilepsy! Dr. Mercola is a huge advocate of the Ketogenic Diet for
mitochondria health! In a similar manner, fasting, which also elicits a
ketogenic response and autophagy, has been used for centuries as a therapy for
many ailments, including cancer!
Case study shows patient on ketogenic diet living fully with IDH1-mutant
glioblastoma
British man's brain tumor grows slowly more than 80 months after diagnosis
11-Jun-2021 4:00 PM EDT, by Boston Collegefavorite_border
Newswise — Chestnut Hill, Mass. (6/10/2021) - A British man who rejected the
standard of care to treat his brain cancer has lived with the typically fatal
glioblastoma tumor growing very slowly after adopting a ketogenic diet,
providing a case study that researchers say reflects the benefits of using the
body's own metabolism to fight this particularly aggressive cancer instead of
chemo and radiation therapy.
Published recently in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, the report is the
first evaluation of the use of ketogenic metabolic therapy (KMT) without chemo
or radiation interventions, on a patient diagnosed with IDH1-mutant
glioblastoma (GBM). Ketogenic therapy is a non-toxic nutritional approach,
viewed as complementary or alternative, that uses a low-carbohydrate, high-fat
diet to manage a range of cancers, including glioblastoma.
In this particular case, the patient's tumor contained a mutation, known as the
IDH1. This mutation is acquired by chance and is known to improve overall
survival. So the findings are particularly relevant to other patients whose
tumors contain this mutation, according to Boston College Professor of Biology
Thomas Seyfried, a co-author of the report and a leading researcher who has
long advocated the benefits of KMT to treat disease.
"As GBM, like most malignant cancers, is dependent on fermentation for energy
synthesis and survival, the simultaneous restriction of fermentable fuels, such
as glucose and glutamine, while elevating non-fermentable ketone bodies, offers
a non-toxic therapeutic strategy for managing GBM," said Seyfried. "Further
studies will be needed to test this hypothesis in other patients diagnosed with
GBM."
Glioblastoma kills about 15,000 people each year and remains largely
unmanageable. While the standard of care has shifted to new immuno-therapies,
the median survival time of 11 to 15 months for GBM has not improved
significantly for more than 100 years, according to the co-authors.
A number of high-profile cases have illustrated the deadly progression of GBM.
The late U.S. Sen. John McCain was diagnosed at age 80 with glioblastoma in
July 2017, and died in August 2018. U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy lived for a
year after his diagnosis with GBM, dying at age 77. Beau Biden, son of U.S.
President Joe Biden, was diagnosed at age 44 with GBM in August 2013, and died
in May 2015.
The current standard of care for GBM involves surgical resection, radiation,
and chemotherapy, which have been shown in studies to result in significant
toxicity. However, large-scale clinical trials for alternative therapies are
difficult to initiate, leading researchers to carefully examine individual
cases.
The patient in this case was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2014 and eschewed
the traditional standard of care and instead embarked on a self-directed
ketogenic diet -- low in carbohydrates and high in fat -- in an effort to
manage his cancer.
The researchers found "the patient's tumor continued to grow very slowly over a
three-year period without expected vasogenic edema until 2017," according to
Seyfried and his co-authors, Boston College researcher Purna Mukherjee, Aditya
Shivane, MD, of University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust, in the United Kingdom,
U.S.-based nutritionist Miriam Kalamian, Joseph Maroon, MD, of the University
of Pittsburgh, and Giulio Zuccoli, MD, of the Drexel University School of
Medicine
At that point, the patient underwent "surgical debulking" of his tumor. The
pathology specimen confirmed the diagnosis of GBM and that the patient's tumor
also contained the IDH1 mutation.
"Following surgery, the patient continued with a self-administered ketogenic
diet to maintain low Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) values, indicative of
therapeutic ketosis," the researchers report. "In light of continued slow
progression of the residual tumour, the patient intensified his KMT starting in
October, 2018 with inclusion of mindfulness techniques to reduce stress. While
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) shows slow interval tumor progression, the
patient remains alive with a good quality of life at the time of this report."
He is now at 82 months from original diagnosis.
"We were surprised to discover that KMT could work synergistically with the
IDH1 mutation to simultaneously target the two major metabolic pathways needed
to drive the growth of GBM," said Seyfried. "Glucose drives the glycolysis
pathway, while glutamine drives the glutaminolysis pathway."
He added: "No tumor, including GBM, can survive without glucose and glutamine.
Our study has identified a novel mechanism by which an acquired somatic
mutation acts synergistically with a low carbohydrate, high fat diet to provide
long-term management of a deadly brain tumor."
Despite the compelling interest in such individual case studies, the co-authors
note: "We cannot predict if the therapeutic response to KMT seen in our GBM
patient will also be seen in other similarly treated GBM patients. For those
GBM patients not fortunate enough to have acquired the spontaneous IDH1
mutation in their tumour, glutamine targeting drugs used with KMT will be
necessary to reduce tumour growth."
The researchers noted that additional studies they've conducted have shown that
the simultaneous targeting of glucose and glutamine availability, using KMT and
the a pan-glutaminase inhibitor - known as 6-diazo-5-oxo-L-norleucine (DON) -
can significantly prolong survival in preclinical syngeneic glioblastomas in
mice. Earlier research has shown that ketogenic diets can facilitate delivery
of small-molecule therapeutic drugs through the blood brain barrier without
toxicity.
A true lover of wisdom has hands too busy to hold on to anything! He learns by
doing and every pebble in the path becomes her teacher! Oink
On Monday, June 14, 2021, 11:50:50 AM EDT, Silver om> wrote:
https://www.newswise.com/articles/case-study-shows-patient-on-ketogenic-diet-living-fully-with-idh1-mutant-glioblastoma?sc=dwhn
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<:3 )~
