Scientists from Duke University found that certain nutrients and chemicals in food navigate the same molecular pathways that certain cancer therapies use to slow tumor growth.
Researchers can manipulate one such shared pathway, which common chemotherapy drugs and radiation used to treat colon cancer and sarcoma, with a dietary restriction to similarly slow tumor growth.
The hope that food might somehow serve as a weapon in the cancer fight has long been a tantalizing notion among scientists and patients alike, but evidence supporting its benefits remains flimsy.
The research is published in Nature and was conducted by Jason Locasale et al.
Scientists know that diet has a huge impact on other diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, and in some cases can be even more effective in containing the disease than drugs.
Cancer is in many ways more difficult, because it’s different diseases with multiple forms, and often defined at a molecular level, so we’re just beginning to understand how diet and nutrition are influencing that.”
The researchers focused on an essential amino acid known as methionine, which the body needs for proper cell function and must be acquired from the diet, primarily from the consumption of meat and eggs.
Methionine’s function is increasingly being analyzed for its role in human health, with studies showing that the reduction of the amino acid has anti-aging and anti-obesity effects.
Its function in cancer has been unclear, but it absorbs into the body’s cellular mechanisms using the same pathways that several chemotherapy drugs and radiation used to slow tumor growth.
In the study, the team first used colon cancer tumors from patients that were grafted into mice, along with mouse models of sarcoma tissues.
They then fed the mice a methionine-restricted diet, resulting in a reduction of tumor growth.
An analysis of the metabolic process confirmed that the amino acid acted through the same cellular process that drugs and radiation employ.
The finding suggests that dietary restriction of methionine induces rapid and specific metabolic profiles in mice and humans that can be induced in a clinical setting.
By disrupting metabolic pathways with the dietary restriction of methionine, it might be possible to enhance the effects of chemotherapies that target these aspects of cancer metabolism.
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