Monday, April 16, 2018

New Prostate Cancer Diet

            With the loss of a particular gene, prostate cancer cells turn into tiny fat factories. In mice, the cancer cells spread from the prostate with a deadly effect. If a prostate cancer cell doesn’t lose the gene spreads/metastasizes, it is only happening because they have a source of fat from the diet they are on. The study with mice suggests that dietary fat can replace the loss of the gene which fuels prostate cancer. In the mice, when an obesity drug is given that blocks fat production it makes prostate cancers regress and not spread. The studies suggest that high-fat diets promote more aggressive cancer. 
            The American Cancer Society estimates prostate cancer to rank as the second most common cancer in American men. When the tumors remain in the prostate they usually do not kill, but when it spreads it becomes lethal. Geneticists discovered how prostate cancers often start, but not a cure. The main problem with these cancers is they change genetically. An experiment was done to give the mice injected with prostate cancer a high-fat diet instead of their low-fat vegetarian formula. This caused the tumors to grow quicker and spread. The new question was “Could they protect mice from metastatic cancer by blocking fat production?” Fatostatin is a drug created to answer this question; the results were the cancer cells stopped spreading. Clinical trials are planned with this new drug for men battling prostate cancer and new diets are being promoted for these patients. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/health/fat-diet-prostate-cancer.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-017-0027-2

1 comment:

  1. Learning about the genes that cause prostate cancer can be a huge step in preventing this cancer from evolving into a lethal situation. Further research and tests can make a huge difference in the world of health care.

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