In a recent study, the research team reported that by reducing protein intake from 20% to 10%, mouse models responded better to immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is a therapy that uses the immune system to fight cancer and other diseases.
"This is very important, because today's immunotherapy, like immune checkpoint inhibitors, has truly become the standard of treatment for many solid tumors. We believe this is applicable to all types of cancer patients," said prostate cancer, kidney cancer and bladder cancer. Pili, a nationally recognized expert, said.
Usually, it is recommended that patients receive cancer treatment, as they usually lose weight during treatment, so they should eat a high-protein diet.
However, Pili’s initial research supports the hypothesis that by modifying the patient’s diet, such as limiting the protein content of the diet for a limited time, the patient may still benefit from immunotherapy.
Pili said: "Our goal is to study how to change the diet of people who already have cancer, and make this dietary change beneficial to them."
Why limit protein? Pelli pointed out that people with high protein diets (animal fat, dairy products and red meat) are more likely to develop cancer. At the same time, a diet rich in vegetables, beans and fish is associated with a lower incidence of cancer.
Dr.
Pili likens a restrictive protein diet to a brake because it may help reduce the immunosuppressive effects of certain cancer patients.
Immune suppression may be the reason why some patients do not respond to immunotherapy, because current drugs (such as immune checkpoint inhibitors) release barriers to the immune system. If the brake is not fully released, the medication is ineffective. If we help reduce the impact of brakes through diet, we may actually subdue the immune suppression mechanism and better release the immune response," he said.
Pili added: "This study shows that more research is needed so that we can continue to learn more about the role of dietary modifications (especially protein restriction) and immunotherapy in cancer patients. Our preliminary The results indicate that changes in eating habits may lead to better responses to immunotherapy, which may lead to fewer invasive treatments in the future."
Pili is the principal investigator of a clinical trial, which is open at the IU Simon Cancer Center for prostate cancer patients undergoing immunotherapy. In the trial, patients will be randomly selected to receive a normal protein diet or a reduced protein diet.