Fasting-mimicking diet and hormone therapy induce breast cancer regression
A study in mouse models of breast cancer. The human portion measured metabolic markers only, not cancer outcomes.
Nature, 2020. Caffa I, et al.
Funding and competing interests (as published with the paper): Competing interests A.N. and I.C. hold intellectual property rights on clinical uses of fasting-mimicking diets. V.D.L. holds intellectual property rights on clinical uses of fasting-mimicking diets and equity interest in L-Nutra, a company that develops and markets medical food. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
- Study type
- Animal study (mice), with a related human metabolic analysis
- Journal
- Nature
- Published
- 2020
- Authors
- Caffa I, et al.
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41586-020-2502-7
- PubMed ID
- 32669709
Summary
In mouse models of hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer, researchers tested whether periodic fasting or a Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) could make existing hormone therapies (tamoxifen, fulvestrant) work better, and separately measured metabolic changes (insulin, leptin, IGF-1) in a group of breast cancer patients receiving estrogen therapy who did FMD cycles.
The authors reported that in mice, the FMD enhanced the activity of the hormone therapies and, when combined with a third drug, led to long-lasting tumor shrinkage and reversed drug resistance in the mouse tumors; the FMD also prevented a tamoxifen-related womb-lining side effect in mice. In the human patients, the authors reported metabolic changes similar to those seen in the mice, with insulin, leptin and IGF-1 reduced.
The tumor-regression and drug-resistance findings are from mouse experiments, not a human cancer trial; the human portion only measured metabolic markers, not cancer outcomes. The authors present the results as support for further clinical studies of an FMD alongside hormone therapy. They do not show that an FMD treats or shrinks cancer in people.
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