Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer?

Klement, Rainer J; Kämmerer, Ulrike

doi:10.1186/1743-7075-8-75

Nutrition & Metabolism

Table 1 Animal studies that have investigated the effects of a KD on tumor progression and host survival

From: Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer?

animals	n	tumor	feeding	C/P/F	major fat source	diet initiation	diet duration	BW vs. controls	BG vs. controls	other effects vs. controls	Ref.
				(E%)		(d)	(d)
C57BL/6 mice	18	B16 melanoma	ad libitum	0/0/100 ¹	PUFA vegetable oil	0	14	-	↓ ^b	lower number of lung metastases ^b	[116]
BALB/c mice	20	Medina-Oborn-Danielson mammary tumor	restricted to 60 E% of control	30/60/5	hydrogenated vegetable oil	~ 14	70	↓	↓ ^c	mortality rate ↓ ^c	[83]
NMR1 mice	> 15	MAC16 colon carcinoma	ad libitum	.../.../80 ²	MCT emulsion	8	20	↑	-	50% less weight loss ^b; left35% less tumor weight	[121]
NMR1 mice	...	MAC16 colon carcinoma	ad libitum	.../.../80		14 - 21	9	↑	-	36% less weight loss ^a	[123]
										32% less tumor weight ^c
										less nitrogen output ^a
C57BL/6 mice	6	CT-2A mouse astrocytoma	restricted to 60 E% of control	0/8/92	lard	1	13	↓ ³	↓ ³	80% less tumor weight^b; plasma IGF1 levels ↓ ^b,³	[84]
C57BL/6 mice	11	CT-2A mouse astrocytoma	ad libitum	3/17/80	soy oil (KetoCal^©)	3	> 8	-	-	no significant differences in either tumor weight, survival or vascularity	[114]
+	+	+
BALB/cJ SCID mice	14	U87 glioblastoma	restricted to 65-70 E% of control	3/17/80	soy oil (KetoCal^©)	3	>8	↓ ^b	↓ ^b	65% (CT-2A)^band 35% (U87)^cless tumor wet weight;
										longer survival ^b; lower number of blood vessels (both tumors)
nu/nu mice	20	LNCaP human prostate cancer	ad libitum	10/45/45	...	14	63	↓ ^a	...	plasma insulin levels ↓ ^c; plasma IGF1 levels ↓ ^c;	[97]
										45% less tumor volume ^a;
										43% less tumor dry weight^c;
										decreased levels of phosphorylated Akt (below detected limits) and insulin receptor in tumor tissue
SCID mice	25	LAPC-4 human prostate cancer	9% more energy than control	0/16/84	milk fat + lard	-24	> 40	-	↑ ^c	longer survival ^b	[134]
NMRI mice	12	23132/87 human gastric adenoma	ad libitum	0/14/86	cheese + MCT + omega-3 oil	0	> 16	-	-	longer survival ^a;	[130]
										tumor growth rate ↓ ^c;
										larger necrotic area in tumors ^b
C3H/HeN mice ⁴	5	squamous cell car-cinoma VII	ad libitum	16/58/26	...	-7	16	↑	↓	41% less tumor volume ^d	[131]
Foxn1nu mice	12	LNT-229 glioma cells	ad libitum	0/13/36	flaxseed and hempseed oil	1	> 63	-	-	no significant differences in survival, tumor growth and plasma IGF1 levels	[128]

In all but one cases, control diets contained a minimum of 40% CHO. Diet initiation refers to the time of tumor cell plantation.
SCID = Severe Combined Immunodeficiency; C/P/F = ratio of CHO:protein:fat; E% = percent of energy; BW = body weight; BG = blood glucose
¹ plus not further specified pellets on days 5, 8 and 11/² plus 3 mg/ml beta-hydroxybutyrate in drinking water/³ controls were fed a KD ad libitum, not high-CHO/⁴ similar results for Rag2M mice bearing human colorectal HCT-116 tumors/^a p < 0.005; ^b p < 0.01; ^c p < 0.05; ^d p < 0.1

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ISSN: 1743-7075

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