Glioblastoma and Ketogenic Diet

"Sunny Lee" recently posted a comment under my previous post. His wife has glioblastoma and I hope he will see this.

There are at least two articles by Dr. Thomas Seyfried and associates on use of the ketogenic diet and caloric restriction to treat glioblastoma. This information was presented at the "Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy and other Neurologic Disorders" conference we attended in Scotland October 2010. They have found that this type of diet shrinks glioblastoma tumors by as much as 80% in lab animals and they have published a case study of a woman whose tumor virtually disappeared after six weeks on this diet. When she reverted back to a higher carbohydrate diet the tumor returned.

The concept here is that many cancerous tumors can only use glucose as a fuel and cannot use ketones. On a strict ketogenic diet, carbohydrate as well as protein (which can be converted to glucose) are minimized and the diet is high in fat, usually 80% or more of calories as fat. Using coconut oil and/or MCT oil in this type of diet helps maintain constant ketone levels. The brain and other organs can continue to thrive using ketones as fuel, whereas the tumor will shrink due to low availability of glucose. Dr. Seyfried believes radiation may not even be necessary thereby sparing the horrendous side effects of this treatment. In many cases, after the tumor is reduced in size, it could be more readily removed surgically. This could significantly lengthen the person's life.

Dr. Seyfried believes that man other types of cancers would respond to ketogenic diet an dmroe so if there is also caloric restriction.

For anyone who needs help with the ketogenic diet there are two websites to look at: In the USA www.charliefoundation.org and in the UK www.matthewsfriends.org. Both websites were created by parents of children with severe drug resistant epilepsy that responded remarkably to the ketogenic diet and have dieticians available to help. They also have a tool called the ketocalculator to help create ketogenic meals. Also, there is help available with ketogenic diet and ketone research ongoing at the John Hopkins Hospital in the USA.