How to Completely Starve Cancer Cells

You may have heard about the ketogenic diet. But did you know it has the potential to starve cancer?

A few years ago, I reported on several experiments in which animals with cancer showed a striking decrease in cancer growth when they were on a ketogenic diet. But, although cancer growth slows down on a ketogenic diet, it doesn’t stop.

So, the big question is, is there anything that can make the diet more effective? And the answer might be yes.

One study showed that it might be possible to literally starve cancer cells with a ketogenic diet when you combine the diet with a new experimental drug. This study has the potential to be the single most important line of research in cancer therapy in decades.

A ketogenic diet is one that all but completely eliminates carbohydrates, while at the same time increasing dietary fat. The diet has been used by doctors since the 1920s when doctors discovered that it stopped seizures that were otherwise uncontrollable. The diet works by lowering blood sugar and insulin, while at the same time stimulating the liver to make special high-energy molecules called ketones. The diet works against cancer because, unlike healthy cells, cancer cells require both sugar and insulin to grow. So, the diet is a way of starving cancer cells of what they need to grow. But that’s not all the diet does.

In addition to the starvation effect, the ketones that the diet produces have a direct toxic effect on cancer cells. Sounds good so far. But here’s the problem.

Although the diet does indeed slow down the growth of cancers, it doesn’t completely starve them. That’s because in addition to sugar and insulin, cancer cells can also use the amino acid glutamine for growth. So, if it were possible to block cancer cells from using glutamine, it might be very possible to completely starve them with a ketogenic diet. And that’s exactly what researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are trying to do.

These researchers have just discovered a small compound that stops cancer cells from being able to use glutamine. They just reported their findings in Nature Medicine. Here’s how it works.

Cancer cells take up glutamine primarily through a transporter protein called ASCT2. Previous genetic studies that silence ASCT2 in cancer cells have produced dramatic anti-tumor effects. And it also explains why lung, breast, and colon cancers with elevated ASCT2 levels are the most aggressive, fastest-growing, and fastest-spreading cancers. What the Vanderbilt researchers have done is to develop the first highly potent inhibitor of ASCT2. The drug is called V-9302. They reported that both in cell cultures and in animals with cancer, V-9302 reduced cancer cell growth and proliferation, increased oxidative damage to the cells, and increased cell death. And here’s why this drug may be the knockout punch for cancer that we have all been waiting for.

First, blocking glutamine transport into cells will not have a toxic effect on healthy cells, just cancer cells. That’s because healthy cells don’t require glutamine for energy production. Second, if the drug by itself shows such toxic effects on cancer cells, imagine combining it with a ketogenic diet. The combination acts to deprive cancer cells of not only glutamine but also sugar and insulin. This is everything they need to grow. And, while all this is happening, the healthy cells will be unaffected. The combination might very well be the key to a safe and effective way to completely starve cancers and control or eliminate them without side effects.

It’s exciting, but the reality is that it could be years before the drug is available for humans. So, until then, do everything you can to decrease your chance of getting cancer. Be sure to decrease your carbohydrate intake to the bare essentials and maintain healthy mitochondrial function. You can learn how to do this by reading my book Bursting With Energy, and following the 10 guidelines I document in the book.

Yours for better health,

Frank Shallenberger, MD