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Old Sun, Mar-15-15, 06:28
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teaser teaser is offline
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Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
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I find this letter both interesting and maddening, given the date. I just stumbled on it looking at another letter on the same page.


Quote:
BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL 28 APRIL 1979


Quote:
Nutrition and cancer
SIR,-Your leading article on malnutrition
and cancer (7 April, p 912) reminds us that the
cachexia of cancer is wrongly compared with
the state of starvation. Starvation is a hypometabolic
state in which there is a reduction
in the turnover of carbohydrate, fat, and
protein stores.' Ketone bodies appear to
play a major regulatory role.' On the other
hand, cancer cachexia is a hypermetabolic
state3 with increases in glycolysis, gluconeogenesis,
lipolysis, and protein catabolism.4 5
Moreover, ketosis is an uncommon phenomenon
in cancer patients (personal observations).
Using intravenous lipid solutions, we
induced ketosis for eight days in a patient
who had advanced hepatic cancer and peritoneal
metastases. During that time she
received only 56 percent of her usual calorie intake.
However, she did not experience any change
in her body weight, abdominal girth, or
general well-being. Furthermore, she felt
sated for the first time in months. Her serum
albumin concentration gradually increased
and her urinary and serum urea concentrations
decreased, suggesting a reduction in endogenous
protein catabolism. Neither hypoglycaemia
nor lactic acidosis was observed.
Ketone bodies have been shown to reduce
the growth, in culture, of transformed
lymphoblasts from Burkitt's lymphoma and
this effect is reversible, non-toxic, and
proportional to the concentration of the
ketone body up to 20mM.6 Normal cells are
also known to have reduced cell growth rates
in starvation.7 8 In leukaemia patients it has
been shown that elevations in the proportion
of immature cells in the bloodstream can be
correlated with elevations in the basal metabolic
rate.9
Surely these experimental findings raise the
question: are forced feeding regimens for the
treatment of advanced cancer metabolically
sound? We have commenced a clinical trial
to evaluate the role of hypometabolic (that is,
ketotic) states in cancer therapy.
R A J CONYERS
A G NEED
A M ROFE
N POTEZNY
R J KIMBER
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