Can a keto diet help treat brain cancer?

surgeon with mri scans

Learn more and try it

A keto diet for beginners

Cancer

Ketosis

Professor D'Agostino

Earlier with Anne Mullens

All earlier posts by Anne Mullens

  1. The New York Times: Glioblastoma, John McCain’s Form of Brain Cancer, Carries Troubling Prognosis

  2. We would qualify her comment by saying, since GBM has a very poor prognosis with current standard care, and there is little risk of complication from nutritional therapy, then it seems reasonable to try a ketogenic diet with supervision and support.

  3. Clinical Nutrition 2019: Treatment of malignant gliomas with ketogenic or caloric restricted diets: A systematic review of preclinical and early clinical studies [very weak evidence]

  4. Journal of Oncological Sciences 2017: Biology of glucose metabolization in cancer cells [overview article; ungraded]

    Cell Metabolism 2016: The Emerging Hallmarks of Cancer Metabolism [overview article; ungraded]

  5. Proceedings 2005:
    Use of PET/CT scanning in cancer patients: technical and practical considerations
    [overview article; ungraded]

  6. Journal of Clinical Investigations 2013: Glutamine and cancer: cell biology, physiology, and clinical opportunities[overview article; ungraded]

  7. Carcinogenesis 2014: Cancer As a Metabolic Disease: Implications for Novel Therapeutics [overview article; ungraded]

  8. The researchers recommend a ketogenic diet restricted to between 1000 and 1500 daily calories based on a weight loss not to exceed 20%. The diet also severely restricts carbohydrates to achieve a blood glucose of 50 to 65 mg/dL and plasma ketone levels of 2 to 4 mmol/L (a much lower glucose level and higher level of ketones than achieved with a traditional ad lib ketogenic diet)

    Surgical Neurology Interventions 2015: The role of metabolic therapy in treating glioblastoma multiforme. [overview article; ungraded]

  9. Nutrition & Metabolism 2017: Press-Pulse: A Novel Therapeutic Strategy for the Metabolic Management of Cancer [overview article; ungraded]

  10. This is based on hypotheses generated from animal studies and remains to be proven in human clinical trials. [very weak evidence]

  11. These are anecdotal reports, not based on scientific studies. [very weak evidence]

  12. Photo credits: Brian Buchsdruecker

  13. Adam’s Got Swag: CTV National News Covers Ketogenic Diet

  14. CISION: World-Renowned Neurologist Recruited to Calgary!