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A high-fat diet may combat low platelet counts in the blood caused by chemotherapy, according to preliminary research, which suggests that a ketogenic eating plan may be a nontoxic, low-cost and high-benefit addition to cancer therapy.
Low platelets trigger a condition known as thrombocytopenia. Chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia is a severe complication in patients with cancer that can lead to an impaired therapeutic outcome and threaten survival. An estimated 1 in 10 patients receiving chemotherapy develops thrombocytopenia, according to the authors of a new analysis in Science Translational Medicine.
"Therapeutic options for chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia are limited by severe adverse effects and high economic burdens," reports Dr. Sisi Xie lead author of the study.
Xie, a researcher in the department of Cellular and Genetic Medicine at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Fudan University in Shanghai, underscored that chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia is a major problem facing oncologists and cancer patients worldwide.
"We demonstrate that ketogenic diets alleviate chemotherapy-induced thrombocytopenia in both animals and humans without causing thrombocytosis," Xie added, referring to a condition that is the exact opposite of thrombocytopenia. In thrombocytosis, the body produces too many platelets.
Platelets are the tiny sticky disc-like cells—part of the blood supply—that clump together to form blood clots. When chemo destroys platelets, the result is thrombocytopenia, which can be dangerous. The condition complicates cancer surgeries by increasing the risk of bleeding, forcing doctors to reduce or discontinue chemotherapy altogether.
Xie and colleagues found that a ketogenic diet can boost the production of ketone bodies in the liver, which in turn, have various biological effects, one of which is combating thrombocytopenia, according to the series of elegant experiments and clinical research conducted by the Shanghai team.
Ketone bodies are alternate energy sources when glucose is not readily available. Ketogenic diets, which emphasize foods high in fats and protein, dramatically lower calories from carbohydrate sources. There are three ketone bodies. The two main ones are acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate; acetone is the third and least abundant.
