Applied diet protocols in chemo / radio therapy – between myth and reality

Domain: Oncological Nutrition

Topics approached:

1. How does the malignant cell feed?
2. Vegetable protein and animal protein in oncological dietetics.
3. Anti-estrogen treatments in breast cancer and what should be avoided dietary.
4. Dietetic and stimulatory phase and maintenance of muscle tissue under immune suppressants.
5. Dietary myths in oncology: keto, veganism, alkalinity, antioxidants.

Patients in oncology departments undergoing radiotherapy may have amazing results in the fight against tumors if a low calorie diet is followed during treatment. Specialists claim that a menu, not very rich during this period increases the cytotoxic effect on tumors, stopping them from evolving and even reducing them in size.

Antitumor diet is of overwhelming importance both before and after any kind of therapy (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy), since only this type of diet with certain dietary supplements is able, in the long run, to change the metabolic ground in the body that leads to tumor formation.

Destruction of a tumor by radio or chemotherapy doesn1t change anything in the body’s economy, but leaves it weaker, intoxicated with the harmful substances that lead to the tumor and immunologically suppressed by applied chemotherapy. Associating this with a series of serious food mistakes, such as excess carbohydrates, red meat, alcohol consumption, etc., creates optimal conditions for reactivating the remaining stem cells in the body and metastasizing them.

For example, carbohydrates in bread or pasta are transformed into the intestine into glucose, which is the primary source of cancer cell energy. Blood glucose is taken 20 times faster than tumor cells than normal cells and used for growth and multiplication. As such, reducing simple carbohydrates in the diet and introducing therapeutic elements to lower blood glucose (such as certain anti-diabetes type 2 drugs) reduces tumor proliferation.

Similarly, if we want to prepare the patient for chemotherapy or radiotherapy, the process of reducing glucose before surgery is particularly important. This goal can be achieved through a two to three day fasting, accompanied only with vegetable juices, or by an adjunctive therapy with blood glucose lowering elements. Decreasing glucose increases the effectiveness of radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Tumor cells devoid of glucose become more sensitive to the effects of these therapies.