A new study led by the Van Andel Institute shows that restricting the availability of fats to cancer cells could improve the success rate of some therapies against the fatal disease. A study published in Cell Chemical Biology offers evidence that specific dietary regimens can help optimize the effectiveness of anti-cancer treatments.
Dr. Evan Lien, the leading author and assistant professor at VAI, said, “We want to make cancer treatment more effective.” The team primarily researched how to understand behaviors in cancerous cells and how to break up their defenses. Their findings may eventually lead to evidence-based diets that might supplement current therapies.
Fats are an important part of healthy cells. But cancer cells can hijack those fats to use as fuel to grow and spread. The process studied here was called ferroptosis, a form of cell death brought about by the degradation of the fat molecules in cancer cells. Targeting ferroptosis has been one of the most promising strategies to develop new cancer treatments very recently.
Often, tumor cells manage to avoid normal cellular controls that would otherwise destroy them. That is where the beauty of ferroptosis lies-it overcomes such defenses to then become a potent means in the treatment of disease. The experiments, by Lien and his colleagues, using cell models, show that by depriving tumor cells of fats, they become highly susceptible to ferroptosis. Thus, the researchers found them to be more sensitive to drugs inducing ferroptosis.
These results are promising, but Lien emphasizes that much more work lies ahead. The team works on replicating its results using different cancer models. They also test how altering different types and amounts of fat through diet can enhance the action of ferroptosis inducers.
“Diet is relatively easy to modify,” Lien says. Though the team is still far from the stage of translating into practical applications, they are all excited about possibilities. They foresee a time when diets may be tailored individually to treatments for cancer. This approach could transform how we manage cancer care.
This could well open the door for new dietary strategies in the treatment of cancers. Understanding the relationship between fats and the behavior of cancerous cells would improve treatment outcomes and enhance patient care. The journey to personalized diets in cancer therapy has barely begun, but its potential looks bright.
ANI