Radiation therapy is a standard treatment procedure for patients with cancer of any kind. But according to the condition of each patient, sometimes this therapy does not always produce the desired results.
A study from the United States also claimed to find ways to increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy for cancer patients is by fasting.
The team of researchers from the University of Southern California successfully concluded this after conducting a series of tests on rats suffering from an aggressive brain tumor.
According to researchers, fasting can increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy in mice with cancer, including extending life expectancy.
"Fasting for some time (short-term) may protect healthy cells as cancer cells are susceptible due to toxic effects from chemotherapy," explained researcher Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological sciences and director of the Longevity Institute, USC Davis School of Gerontology.
Studies that have been featured in the journal PLoS One is the first to show that fasting seems to have an additional effect similar to radiation therapy in treating brain tumors are most often diagnosed glioma.
Moreover, for patients with gliomas is on average only live less than two years.
"When we did a study of chemotherapy, we wanted to see how to protect patients against the toxic effects of therapy. Study of radiation But with this comes the question of what conditions would make the cancer vulnerable to radiation? Then how do we optimize the conditions so that people with cancer need not must often undergo therapy at the hospital? " Longo said as reported by Medindia on Wednesday (12/09/2012).
Longo and his colleagues are also studying the effectiveness of the combination of fasting with a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy drug Temozolomide fast with the latter used as a standard treatment for brain tumors in adults after undergoing surgical removal of the tumor.
Researchers found that mice that were 'forced' to fast for no more than 48 hours each time after being irradiated proven to increase the effectiveness of radiation and chemotherapy to treat glioma experienced.
In spite of aggressive brain tumor growth observed in this study, rats were fasted once received radiation therapy in fact twice as likely to survive at the end of the trial than if only given radiation therapy alone or 'forced' fasting alone.
"The results suggest fasting beneficial for glioma patients when combined with standard treatment is chemotherapy and radiotherapy," added Longo.
Nevertheless, Longo cautioned patients to consult first with the handle oncologist before undergoing fasting.
"If you want to balance the risk then you should do it right. But if you seem to run out of ways to treat your tumor, short-term fasting may provide additional opportunities for some patients," he concluded.
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