Pop­u­lar ke­to di­et set to be test­ed in hu­mans to see if it can amp up ef­fect of weak PI3K drugs

Could a pop­u­lar di­et be put on the menu of treat­ment op­tions for some can­cer pa­tients? A new mouse study sug­gests that the an­swer might be yes — and a mar­quee sci­en­tist in the field is set to test it in hu­mans.

Com­bin­ing a ke­to­genic di­et with PI3K in­hibitors like Zy­delig (Gilead) and Aliqopa (from Bay­er) ap­pears to be an ef­fec­tive way to com­bat the in­ter­fer­ence of an in­sulin re­sponse mech­a­nism trig­gered when the drug in­ter­rupts in­sulin pro­duc­tion and then sets off an al­ter­na­tive spike in in­sulin pro­duc­tion which may well be re­spon­si­ble for ei­ther re­duc­ing or elim­i­nat­ing its ef­fi­ca­cy.

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