Cutting off cancer cells’ access to fats could enhance the effectiveness of certain cancer treatments, according to a recent study. This research paves the way for creating personalized dietary approaches that could help cancer drugs be more successful in combating cancer cells.
Research from scientists at the Van Andel Institute suggests that limiting cancer cells’ access to fat may improve the efficacy of certain cancer therapies.
The study’s results, which appeared in Cell Chemical Biology, form a foundation for developing customized dietary strategies that may assist anti-cancer treatments in more effectively destroying malignant cells.
“Our goal is to enhance the effectiveness of cancer treatments,” stated Evan Lien, Ph.D., an assistant professor at VAI and the lead author of the study. “Understanding cancer cell behavior and finding ways to overcome their defenses is crucial. Our findings are a significant step toward creating evidence-based diets that could potentially support current treatment methods.”
Fats are essential nutrients that are crucial for proper bodily functions. Cancer cells often take advantage of normal cellular mechanisms and absorb resources like fats, using them as energy to grow and spread.
This research concentrated on ferroptosis, a form of cell death that occurs when fat molecules in cancer cells are damaged. Recently, targeting ferroptosis has gained attention as a promising direction for new anti-cancer approaches.
Many of the processes that enable cancer cells to proliferate uncontrollably also allow them to evade cellular quality control mechanisms that typically eliminate unhealthy cells. Ferroptosis may be an exception, suggesting it could be a powerful method to incorporate into cancer treatment.
Through cell model experiments, Lien and his team discovered that preventing cancer cells from accessing fats makes them exceptionally sensitive to ferroptosis, as well as to drugs designed to induce ferroptosis.
Although the findings are encouraging, Lien emphasizes the need for further research to verify these results in various cancer models. He and his team are also looking into whether the type and amount of fats in the diet can be adjusted to enhance the effectiveness of ferroptosis inducers.
“Diet is something that’s relatively easy to change,” Lien noted. “We’re not there yet, but we’re excited about the potential to use our findings to eventually develop diets tailored to different cancer treatments. This could be groundbreaking.”
The research team includes Kelly H. Sokol, Cameron J. Lee, Thomas J. Rogers, Ph.D., Althea Waldhart, Abigail E. Ellis, Samuel R. Daniels, Rae J. House, Ph.D., Xinyu Ye, Mary Olsenavich, Amy Johnson, Benjamin R. Furness, and Ryan D. Sheldon, Ph.D. from VAI; and Sahithi Madireddy from the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
