Going without food for short periods may help to combat cancer and boost the effectiveness of treatments, say scientists.
A study found fasting slowed the growth and spread of tumours and cured some cancers when it was combined with chemotherapy.
It is hoped that the discovery will prompt the development of more effective treatment plans and further research is now under way.
Fasting may help to combat cancer and boost the effectiveness of treatment.
The latest investigation, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, found that tumour cells responded differently to the stress of fasting compared to normal cells.
Instead of entering a dormant state similar to hibernation, the cells kept growing and dividing, in the end destroying themselves.
Lead researcher Professor Valter Longo, from the University of Southern California said: ‘The cell is, in fact, committing cellular suicide.
‘What we’re seeing is that the cancer cell tries to compensate for the lack of all these things missing in the blood after fasting. It may be trying to replace them, but it can’t.’
Professor Longo and his team looked at the impact fasting had on breast, urinary tract and ovarian cancers in mice.
Fasting without chemotherapy was shown to slow the growth of breast cancer, melanoma skin cancer, glioma brain cancer and neuroblastoma – a cancer that forms in the nerve tissue.
Scientists found tumour cells responded differently to the stress of fasting compared to normal cells
In every case, combining fasting with chemotherapy made the cancer treatment more effective.
Multiple cycles of fasting combined with chemotherapy cured 20 per cent of those with a highly aggressive form of cancer while 40 per cent with a limited spread of the same cancer were cured.
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Fasting may be one way to make tumour cells weaker and more vulnerable.
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