Research
Research on the Ketogenic Lifestyle & Cancer:
Cutting Through the Noise
A frequent comment I hear from people dealing with Breast Cancer who want to utilize a ketogenic lifestyle as part of their treatment plan is: there is so much conflicting information, it is confusing to know what direction to go.
Receiving a Breast Cancer diagnosis is unsettling enough without adding to the mix conflicting information that is driven by financial gain or bias. As a research nerd, my partiality leans toward making decisions based on the most up-to-date, well-formulated research; well designed studies that move our understanding forward.
Who is doing this research?: The studies that move our knowledge forward so that we can incorporate a ketogenic lifestyle into our treatment plans for Breast Cancer. Let’s look at some of the researchers I listen to as part of my decision-making process.
The following is a list (though far from comprehensive) of researchers who are delving into the topic of using the ketogenic lifestyle in the treatment of Cancer:
Thomas Seyfried: primary investigations into cancer metabolism and applications for Glioblastoma
Dominic D’Agostino: primary investigations into ketones on neurological function
Adrienne Scheck: primary investigations into Glioblastoma
Parker Hyde: primary investigation into KD for metastatic breast cancer
Jeff Volek & Stephen Phinney: have been researching all aspects of low carbohydrate nutrition for decades
Angela Poff: primary investigations are into the metabolism of cancer and how the KD effects that metabolism
Jocelyn Tan: primary interest in using KD for management of cancer treatment
Colin Champ: primary investigations into the use of KD and LCHF nutrition as an adjunct to standard of care cancer treatments
Here are a couple of citations for recent research specific to the ketogenic diet and Breast Cancer:
Adele Khodabakshi, et.al. Feasibility, safety and beneficial effects of MCT-based Ketogenic Diet for Breast Cancer treatment: a randomized controlled trial study, 2019.
****It is important from a research point of view that this study allowed for fat-adaptation in the participants before drawing conclusions on effectiveness of KD nutrition. Often research studies that look at KD nutrition do not factor-in the period of fat-adaptation.
Rainer Clement, et.al. Impact of ketogenic diet intervention during radiotherapy on body composition: III - final results of the KETOCAMP study for breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Research, 22. 2020.
