An effective drugs and diet treatment for cancer is on the horizon after experiments in mice found the combination halted tumour growth.
The treatment will now be tested in humans where it holds promise for bowel, breast, cervical, ovarian, uterine and prostate cancers.
Many cancer tumours have a genetic defect which makes them heavily reliant on fat to grow.
Experiments with a repurposed, anti-inflammatory drug, in combination with a fat-free, plant-based diet, not only stopped the tumours growing but shrunk them significantly as well.
The treatment works by modifying the genes in a way that effectively chokes off the fat supply the tumour needs to survive and grow and so it withers.
The drugs and the diet must be employed together, since either method on its own wont work, the researchers said.
We have found that tumours are often heavily reliant on specific fats and their products to fuel their growth and spread, and that denying them the ability to process these could be an effective treatment, said George Poulogiannis, of The Institute for Cancer Research.
Stopping a specific subtype of cancers from being able to release a key omega-6 fat known as arachidonic acid could be effective as a treatment, but only if sources of this fat are also cut out of the diet, he said.
The study, which also involved researchers from Imperial College London, was published in the journal Cell.
Scientists not involved in the work welcomed its findings but cautioned that much work remains to be done to demonstrate the treatment is safe and effective in humans.
Professor Paul Pharoah, of the University of Cambridge, said: The researchers have shown that this treatment/diet has an effect in mice, but that is a very long way from demonstrating that such treatment would be safe, acceptable or effective in humans.
Professor Graham Burdge, of the University of Southampton, added: This is an intriguing study although caution must be exercised in extrapolating these cell culture and animal studies to humans.
In the study, scientists found that a molecule called PI3K which is vital to the growth and survival of cancer cells has a key role in triggering the release of arachidonic acid, a key omega-6 fat.
PI3K is often mutated in many cancers, including breast, gynaecological and bowel cancers. The combination of drugs and diet effectively shut down its activities.
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Hopes raised for cancer treatment after experiments halted tumour growth in mice - iNews
