Some examples of metabolic cancer therapies include:
- Ketogenic diet: This is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that can starve cancer cells of glucose, their primary fuel source. The diet can shift the body into a state of ketosis, where it begins to use fats for energy instead of carbohydrates.
- Fasting: This involves abstaining from food for a certain period of time, which can reduce the amount of glucose available to cancer cells.
- Metformin: This is a drug commonly used to treat diabetes that can inhibit cancer cell growth by reducing glucose uptake and increasing apoptosis (cell death).
- Caloric restriction: This involves reducing caloric intake, which can decrease glucose levels and inhibit the growth of cancer cells.
- Hyperthermia: This is a treatment that involves heating cancer cells to a high temperature, which can disrupt their metabolic processes and cause cell death.
- Oxygen therapy: This involves exposing cancer cells to high levels of oxygen, which can induce apoptosis and inhibit the growth of new blood vessels that supply nutrients to the cancer cells.
- Targeting specific metabolic pathways: Some drugs target specific metabolic pathways that are critical for cancer cell growth and survival, such as glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle.
