US researchers explore link between sugar, insulin, keto, and cancer

The groundbreaking work of US cancer researcher Lewis Cantley, PhD, linking the ketogenic diet to an anti-cancer drug, is receiving prominent coverage in the medical media.
Dr. Cantley, who is based at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, is leading a research program in which a powerful anti-cancer drug is paired with the ketogenic diet in effort to starve cancer cells of the glucose and insulin they need to grow and spread. His work, now in clinical trials with women with endometrial cancer, was detailed in a new feature in The Medical Express this week.
Medical Express: Increasing evidence of a strong connection between sugar and cancer
A number of years ago, Cantley discovered a special enzyme, called PI3 kinase, which some are calling “the master switch for cancer.” As the article notes:
It turned out that the gene that encodes PI3K is the most frequently mutated cancer-promoting gene in humans — and in the years since Dr. Cantley’s revolutionary discovery, it has been implicated in as many as 80 percent of cancers, including those of the breast, brain and bladder.
Cantley is touted to be in contention for the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery. But now Cantley and his team have created drugs that inhibit PI3K. However, their research also found that despite the new drug’s ability to inhibit PI3K, the continuing presence of high insulin drives further cancer growth. How to get the insulin levels down? The ketogenic diet!
His groundbreaking work, in which PI3K inhibitors plus the ketogenic diet shrank cancers in mice, received prominent coverage in pre-eminent journal Nature in July 2018. Now the work has moved into clinical trials in humans.
In December, Dr. Bret Scher wrote about this promising avenue of research in a column for Diet Doctor. Dr. Scher’s post was a summary of a larger piece written by famous oncologist and author Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee in The New York Times Magazine, which also describes Dr. Cantley’s ground-breaking work. Mukherjee was a co-author with Cantley on the Nature publication and a leading clinical researcher involved in the clinical trials of keto plus the PI3K inhibitor.
Diet Doctor: Prominent oncologist to study potential of “keto+ drugs” to fight cancer
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Said Dr. Scher of the work, and Mukherjee’s involvement:
How wonderful that this mainstream trial is about to get underway, especially with a curious and open-minded researcher at the helm. Knowledge is power, and shining the bright light of mainstream attention and resources on the potential of keto diets as an adjuvant cancer therapy is very good news indeed.
In a second story in the medical news this past week, a team of researchers, including post-doctoral fellows who had been working in Cantley’s lab at Weill Cornell Medicine, has discovered that high-fructose corn-syrup increases intestinal tumor growth in mouse models of colon cancer. The cancer growth was independent of obesity in the mice.
The study was published in the leading journal Science this past week. While the team of authors conclude the results are too early to translate into human cancer growth “these mouse studies support the hypothesis that the combination of dietary glucose and fructose, even at a moderate dose, can enhance tumorigenesis [tumor growth].”
Science Daily News: High-fructose corn syrup boosts intestinal tumor growth in mice.
Science: High-fructose corn syrup enhances intestinal tumor growth in mice
In short, while much more research needs to be done, these are exciting times for novel cancer research, helping us better understand the role of glucose and insulin in cancer growth and using the ketogenic diet as a potentially powerful addition to new cancer therapies.


A ketogenic diet for beginners
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- Sean BenjaminLong term keto people have known this. What really needs further study is the effects of elevated insulin in the blood stream. Carbs are only half the story.
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- ChrisThere is very "good" fat and there is very "bad" fat.
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- CE InkibitzIs this the same enzyme that Dr. Burzynski discovered and has been using to cure and treat Cancer for many many years?
- jimIts a heavy load to live with diabetes for many decades of a life. Its a bit of depression to read, from Diet Dr. time and time again about cancer being in the picture as well, for many. I guess cancer picks from all persons in life, but it's a worry to have to face so many chronic and acute illness often at same time. Not sure I want to be reminded. I am sure he sees Keto as possible help to multiple health challenges. I still wonder about keto being all out safe, due to most of the medical profession refuse to say it is best approach.
- karensometimes DCIS is just calcium deposits. if you get a thermography scan you can see if there is a blood supply;
if none then it is probably just calcium and can be tender to the touch whereas cancer does not hurt. - ChristineKerry, have you given Magnesium a try? 300mg per day is a general recommendation.
- FionHow long cdid it take you to lose that weight? I have a LOT to lose and only started Keto a couple of days ago.
- LoriYou can get your magnesium from eating almonds which is keto approved and eating less carbs and sugars cuts all the inflammation...I hope the human study gets approved...yeh to keto!
- AnnaI'm. Interested in researcher
- D manOne year of no cancer, after Keto adapted, it took only 9 days or about there for all cancer tumors to die.
Warning:
Don't do any scans of CT, MRI... etc. NEVER allow contrast or any substance to inject into your body. It's a cancer promoting action. - Sessa StantonUp your intake of magnesium and potassium to calm leg cramps. Keto cuts those minerals out of your diet. I haven’t had a problem since I added those supplements 😃
- PaulaAnother article, same topic:
https://bit.ly/2U4WLMK
US researchers study link between sugar, insulin and cancer
Alex Williams
Wed, 27 Mar 2019The work of a team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York state, has highlighted important links between glucose, insulin and many forms of cancer.
The team is led by Dr Lewis Cantley...
I was not a big meat eater nor funded by meat industry. I went keto and tumors all shrunk & now down to the 1 big one (was the size of a large baked potato, now the size of a plum). Even conventional oncologist can feel the difference and the labs & CT scans all back up what I know, Keto works!