Fasting mimicking diet - a new weapon against prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second most prevalent cancer among men. Patients with PC are particularly susceptible to metabolic syndrome due to its well-known association with weight gain. Obesity is also often a risk factor for aggressive PC. Men who gain more than 5% body weight after a prostate cancer diagnosis have an 65% increased risk of prostate cancer mortality and a 27% higher risk of all-cause mortality. Moreover, poor metabolic health is a significant risk factor for PC development, and metabolic syndrome is often induced by hormonal therapies commonly required for PC treatment. These findings make PC patients an ideal study group for evaluating the effect of nutritional interventions to improve quality of life and potentially decrease PC-caused mortality.

Intermittent fasting was proven to be an effective weight-loss method in chronic illnesses. Animal and introductory human studies show that periodically repeated fasting lasting only 3–5 days can be very efficient in treating cancers (combined with standard care). The fasting mimicking diet (FMD) is a type of intermittent fasting, low in calories, sugars, and protein but high in unsaturated fats.  

A new pilot prospective study investigated the effect of FMD on metabolic health factors in patients with PC. To better understand the impact of  FMD in PC patients, a team led by Fay-Watt introduced a periodic 5-day FMD to a cohort of PC patients and features of metabolic syndrome. 29 out of 35 patients completed 3-monthly cycles of the 5-consecutive days of FMD. They compared the subjects' baseline weight, abdominal circumference, blood pressure and selected laboratory results to the same measurements 3-months after finishing the FMD cycles.

The post-intervention assessment shows that, on average, patients' weight dropped by 3.79 kg. On average, the abdominal circumference was lowered by 4.57 cm, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased by 9.52 mmHg and 4.48 mmHg, respectively. FMD also had more relevant effects in 'at-risk' PC patients than those with average values of risk factors for metabolic syndrome. Moreover, the same FMD treatment was shown to reduce body weight, trunk fat and total body fat, and blood pressure in comparison to a regular diet in a randomized phase 2 trial (n=100), without a diagnosed medical condition. The above results prove a justified pre-clinical and clinical reason for using FMD in PC patients and as a preventative measure in healthy individuals.

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