Reacción a "Reactions: a ketogenic diet could improve the low platelet count caused by chemotherapy"

The beneficial effects of different regimes of dietary restriction keep gaining momentum, as preclinical work keep showing that such interventions delaye tumour growth, improve anti-tumour immunity, and exert protection of normal, non-tumoral cells in the host. In general, this anti-cancer therapeutic angle is still in an early phase of development partially because of the preclinical nature of most findings, and partially because we still ignore the underlying molecular mechanisms, in other words, we still do not know how and why this benefit occurs.

 This paper is interesting because it employs mouse genetics, metabolic analysis and patient data to tease out one of the protective mechanisms that governs the beneficial effects on normal cells. The main finding is that elevated ketone bodies (the energy source for our cells when we fast, or when we eat a ketogenic, low carbohydrate diet) has positive effects on the production of platelets. Because one of the negative consequences of chemotherapy to normal cells is a serious suppression of platelet formation, such boost in platelet formation could increase patients’ tolerance to chemotherapy, and prevent or minimize the side effect of a low-platelet count in cancer patients. Another interesting finding is that supplementation of a ketone body, or a ketogenic diet, could exert the same effect without the need of subjecting a patient to such challenging dietary intervention. This is particularly relevant for cancer patients that tend to lose weight as a side effect of the medication or the tumour itself. Another aspect to bear in mind, is that ketone bodies help increase the number of platelets, but do not impact anemia or lymphocytopenia, other side effects of chemotherapy, but this selective effect does not undermine the value of the work. The clinical observation, as stated by the authors, are preliminary, but calls for further investigation on a very interesting and clinical relevant observation.