Ketone supplementation and the ketogenic diet for cancer

"The emerging role of metabolism in many types of cancers provides a novel target for new therapeutics. A possibility is dietary therapies that are designed to take advantage of the unique energetic needs of tumor cells. One such option is the use of a very high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet (90%:5%, respectively) called the Ketogenic Diet (KD). This diet has been used to treat epilepsy for nearly 90 years, and recently its application as a cancer therapeutic has been explored. Although preclinical studies demonstrate its efficacy and clinical case reports support its feasibility, the KD is difficult to implement due to its stringent nature. Here, we report the development of an sHFLC, which mimics the main physiologic effects of the KD, namely reduced glucose and increased ketones. In addition, the sHFLC diet is able to reduce glioblastoma (GB) tumor cell proliferation and extend lifespan in GB animal models."