The ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy prolong survival in mice with systemic metastatic cancer.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Preclinical animal model study (mice)
PubMed 23755243 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065522
What was done
The authors tested the effects of a ketogenic diet (KD) and hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT; 2.5 ATM absolute, 90 minutes, 3 times per week), individually and combined, in a firefly luciferase-tagged VM-M3 mouse model of systemic metastatic cancer. Mice received standard diet or KD ad libitum with or without HBOT. Tumor progression was monitored using in vivo bioluminescent imaging, and blood glucose and survival times were assessed.
What was found
KD alone significantly decreased blood glucose, slowed tumor growth, and increased mean survival time by 56.7%. HBOT alone did not influence cancer progression. The combination of KD and HBOT resulted in a significant decrease in blood glucose and tumor growth rate, as well as a 77.9% increase in mean survival time compared to controls. Numerical baseline/endpoint values for glucose, ketone levels, absolute survival times, and sample sizes were not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
This study demonstrates in an animal model that non-toxic metabolic therapies targeting both tumor glucose dependency and hypoxia can act synergistically to slow metastatic cancer progression.
Limits
The study is conducted exclusively in a preclinical mouse model and cannot be directly translated to human clinical efficacy. The abstract omits sample size (n), absolute survival numbers, exact blood glucose and ketone concentrations, and measures of statistical variance.