Prostate cancer is a common form of cancer that affects about 13% of cisgender men worldwide, with about one in 44 men dying from the disease. Despite advances in screening and early detection methods, more advanced stages of prostate cancer can be challenging to treat. Researchers at the University of Notre Dame have found that adding a pre-ketone supplement to immunotherapy may improve its efficiency in treating prostate cancer. Immunotherapy is a treatment that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer, and there are currently two types of immunotherapy available for prostate cancer — cancer vaccines and immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, advanced prostate cancer remains resistant to immunotherapy due to an increase in pro-tumor immune cells and insufficient tumor-specific antigens. Therefore, finding new ways to sensitize prostate cancer to immunotherapy is critical.
The research team at the University of Notre Dame conducted a study using a mouse model of prostate cancer to investigate the effects of combining a pre-ketone supplement with immunotherapy. They divided the mice into six groups, with some receiving only immunotherapy, others receiving a keto diet, a pre-ketone supplement, or a combination of these along with immunotherapy. The control group received no treatment. The results showed that the pre-ketone supplement and the combination of keto diet and immunotherapy reduced cancer tumors and extended the lives of the mice. The group receiving the combination of pre-ketone supplement and immunotherapy had the best outcomes, with 23% of the mice becoming tumor-free.
The pre-ketone supplement enhances immunotherapy in two ways. First, it makes cancer cells more detectable to the immune system by increasing the presentation of molecular features on the surface of cancer cells. Second, the ketone body from the supplement, along with immunotherapy, elicits special metabolic and molecular effects on immune cells, stimulating them to attack the cancer cells. Although the 23% cure rate in the study is promising, the researchers acknowledge that there is still room for improvement by optimizing the combination and possibly adding another therapy.
Medical oncologist Wael Harb finds the idea of combining a ketogenic diet or ketone supplement with immunotherapy to enhance the efficacy of checkpoint blockade therapy in prostate cancer intriguing. However, he cautions that the study is at a preclinical stage and does not translate directly to using the keto diet to treat or prevent cancer in humans. Clinical trials are needed to determine the efficacy and safety of this combination in humans. Additionally, considerations about inducing ketosis without causing weight loss in cancer patients are crucial, as weight loss can be detrimental to their health. Further research is needed to explore the potential benefits of combining the keto diet or ketone supplements with immunotherapy in treating other types of cancer.