The Evidence of Ketogenic Diet in the Treatment of Cancer

According to the mitochondrial metabolic theory, cancers could be considered as metabolic diseases. Consequently, cancer cells will become more reliant on glycolysis. It has been suggested that cancer metabolic therapies, including ketogenic diets (KD), may be useful among others. Emerging evidence indicates that KD can reduce glucose availability for tumor cells, while simultaneously elevating ketone bodies as a non-fermentable metabolic fuel for healthy cells. Due to mitochondrial dysfunction, most cancer cells cannot use ketone bodies, and they can be toxic to some cancer cells. KD limit the growth of cancer cells without adverse effect on normal cells. The results of clinical studies show the positive effect of ketogenic diet on cancer. However, further double-blind clinical trials with proper designs are needed to investigate this hypothesis that KD can be routinely used as a therapeutic procedure in patients with cancer.