The selection of chemotherapy drugs is based on the cytotoxicity to specific tumour cell types and the relatively low toxicity to normal cells and tissues. However, the toxicity to normal cells poses a major clinical challenge, particularly when malignant cells...
short-term starvation (STS) protects normal cells while simultaneously sensitising malignant cells to high-dose chemotherapeutic drugs in mice and possibly patients. The fasting-dependent protection of normal cells and sensitisation of malignant cells depends, in part, on reduced levels of insulin-like growth...
Glioma, including anaplastic astrocytoma and glioblastoma multiform (GBM) are among the most commonly diagnosed malignant adult brain tumours. GBM is a highly invasive and angiogenic tumour, resulting in a 12 to 15 months median survival. The treatment of GBM is...
The dietary recommendation for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, as described by the American Cancer Society, is to increase calorie and protein intake. Yet, in simple organisms, mice, and humans, fasting—no calorie intake—induces a wide range of changes associated with cellular...
Short-term starvation (or fasting) protects normal cells, mice, and potentially humans from the harmful side effects of a variety of chemotherapy drugs. Here we show that treatment with starvation conditions sensitised yeast cells (S. cerevisiae) expressing the oncogene-like RAS2val19 to...
Mutations in growth signaling pathways extend life span, as well as protect against age-dependent DNA dam-age in yeast and decrease insulin resistance and cancer in mice. To test their effect in humans, we monitored for 22 years Ecuadorian individuals who...
Chronic calorie restriction retard cancer growth, but its weight-loss effect and the potential problems associated with combining it with chemotherapy have prevented its clinical application. Based on the discovery in model organ-isms that short term starvation (STS or fasting) causes...
Inhibitors of the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) receptor have been widely studied for their ability to enhance the killing of a variety of malignant cells, but whether IGF-I signaling differentially protects the host and cancer cells against chemotherapy is unknown....
Treatment of cancers with the cytotoxic agent cisplatin frequently evokes resis-tance, accompanied by rewiring of meta-bolic pathways, limiting its clinical use. Recent research by Obrist et al (2018) shows that cisplatin-resistant growth of lung adenocarcinoma is particularly vulnerable to periodic...
Cancer cells are characterized by dysregulation in signal transduction and metabolic pathways leading to increased glucose uptake, altered mitochon-drial function, and the evasion of antigrowth signals. Fasting and fasting-mimicking diets (FMDs) provide a particularly promising intervention to pro-mote differential effects...
Abstract: Short‐term fasting (48 hours) was shown to be effective in protecting normal cells and mice but not cancer cells against high dose chemotherapy, termed Differential Stress Resistance (DSR), but the feasibility and effect of fasting in cancer patients undergoing ...
Asking a cancer patient to fast while under-going chemotherapy may seem like adding insult to injury. But a dramatic experiment in mice has led some researchers to suggest that fasting may blunt the side effects of cancer treatment and perhaps...
Strategies to treat cancer have focused primarily on the killing of tumor cells. Here, we describe a differential stress resistance (DSR) method that focuses instead on protecting the organism but not cancer cells against chemotherapy.
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Veronique Chachay, The University of Queensland The gold standard treatment for cancer in the last few decades has been a combination of surgery – to remove tumours – and chemotherapy and radiotherapy – to kill cancer cells. With the progress...
Valter Longo talks about his study of the positive effects of fasting, extreme diets and drugs that mimic them on the prevention and treatment of cancer. Recorded during the 1st Symposium IFOM-EMBL Monterotondo, June 2015
