4 ms·

Can cancer cells metabolise ketones?

kolbe 9y ago
I think they struggle to. I remember hearing a theory that the biggest reason chemotherapy works is that patients have trouble eating, and they slip into ketosis. Thomas Seyfried has done a lot of research on this subject. Cancer: A Metabolic Disease With Metabolic Solutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEE-oU8_NSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEE-oU8_NSU
tertius 9y ago
Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. So if your normal cells are functioning normally then cancer cells will also function normally. If ketosis stopped cancer cells from proliferating the same would go for all other normal cells of the specific tissue. Ketosis has shown to be good for quicker recovery from chemotherapy.
- jpfed 9y ago
  >Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. So if your normal cells are functioning normally then cancer cells will also function normally. But that only holds if growing out of control has no impact on normal function. If, say, cancer cells reproduced faster than their own mitochondria, then those cancer cells would function differently from normal cells in a particular sense: they could metabolize sugars into pyruvate but not all the way to CO2 + H2O. And that in turn could have other consequences.
  - tertius 9y ago
    True. I was only referencing what they use as energy, i.e. the same sugars (etc.) that their normal growing and dying counterparts do.
- lazerpants 9y ago
  >Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. This statement glosses over how important the molecular processes of cellular metabolism and mitosis are, how they are linked, and why cancer cells are aberrant. I don't think one can call a cancer cell a normal cell that is growing out of control.
  - tertius 9y ago
    > I don't think one can call a cancer cell a normal cell that is growing out of control. This is pretty much the characteristic ability that cancerous cells have. I can be more specific if you'd like.

I think they struggle to. I remember hearing a theory that the biggest reason chemotherapy works is that patients have trouble eating, and they slip into ketosis. Thomas Seyfried has done a lot of research on this subject. Cancer: A Metabolic Disease With Metabolic Solutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEE-oU8_NSU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEE-oU8_NSU

tertius 9y ago

Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. So if your normal cells are functioning normally then cancer cells will also function normally. If ketosis stopped cancer cells from proliferating the same would go for all other normal cells of the specific tissue. Ketosis has shown to be good for quicker recovery from chemotherapy.

jpfed 9y ago
>Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. So if your normal cells are functioning normally then cancer cells will also function normally. But that only holds if growing out of control has no impact on normal function. If, say, cancer cells reproduced faster than their own mitochondria, then those cancer cells would function differently from normal cells in a particular sense: they could metabolize sugars into pyruvate but not all the way to CO2 + H2O. And that in turn could have other consequences.
- tertius 9y ago
  True. I was only referencing what they use as energy, i.e. the same sugars (etc.) that their normal growing and dying counterparts do.
lazerpants 9y ago
>Remember that "cancer" is just normal cells that grow out of control. This statement glosses over how important the molecular processes of cellular metabolism and mitosis are, how they are linked, and why cancer cells are aberrant. I don't think one can call a cancer cell a normal cell that is growing out of control.
- tertius 9y ago
  > I don't think one can call a cancer cell a normal cell that is growing out of control. This is pretty much the characteristic ability that cancerous cells have. I can be more specific if you'd like.