Role of ketogenic diet in the management of cancer: A systematic review.

Abstract

e24042 Background: Cancer is 2nd leading cause of death (1 in every 5) in the United States followed by heart disease. Use of ketogenic diet (KD)- high-fat & low-carbohydrate diet, allows fatty acids to become the obligatory source of cellular energy which can help in decreasing the tumor cell growth. Aim of this study was to evaluate role of KD in different types of cancer. Methods: We performed a systematic review using PRISMA protocol to identify articles describing the role of the ketogenic diet in cancer patients in PubMed. Keywords like cancer, neoplasm, tumor, KD, and intermittent fasting (IF) were used & filters like full text, English, human, observational studies, & clinical trials (CTs) were applied between 2018-2022. Results: Of the 362 studies after using filters only 22 studies were CTs. Of these 22, 12 studies were excluded & 10 studies were included in this study. [Table 1] We found CTs describing role of KD, IF or standard diet (SD) in brain cancer, non-metastasized rectal cancer, high-grade glioma, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer, ovarian and endometrial cancer. KD was describes as an accompanying measure for patients undergoing standard-of-care therapy that helps to improve the quality of life, survival & acceptable safety and tolerability. KD may augment the antitumor effects of classic chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Conclusions: Role of KD is described in depth, but majority RCT results were heterogeneous in nature to provide quantitative measures of survival timeline, outcomes, & recovery. Thus, more human prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the therapeutic effectiveness & safety of KD.[Table: see text]