Cell self-destruction: a new way to treat brain tumors?

Today I am going to talk about a very serious disease: glioblastoma, which is the most common type of brain tumor in adults. Worst of all, it has no cure and is 100% deadly, a real catastrophe! That is why many researchers and neurosurgeons are working hard to find better therapies. Luckily, Dominique Higgins, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, has found a possible solution: ferroptosis, a type of programmed cell death that causes cells to “self-destruct” on command, and best of all, glioblastoma tumor cells are particularly sensitive to this process.

Ferroptosis is very important for many biological processes, and not only in cancers; two amino acids, cysteine ​​and methionine, are essential to prevent the process from starting in cells, we usually get them through our diet. The neurosurgeon research team has found that by removing these amino acids from the diet, glioblastoma cells are much more likely to die from ferroptosis. They have also found that diet makes chemotherapy drugs more apt to initiate programmed cell death, meaning that very low doses were able to achieve a more potent effect than before.

Higgins is working with colleagues at UNC Lineberger to develop a clinical trial for patients with glioblastoma. it is planeed to put patients on a diet before surgery to understand how it affects the body and the tumor, once he removes the tumor from the brain, he will analyze it to see how well the tumors responded to the diet.

This type of diet has also been shown to be very effective in sarcoma, lung cancers and pancreatic cancers, so there is hope that it can be used to put a little more muscle behind chemotherapy and/or surgery to remove tumors throughout the body. So now you know, if you have a glioblastoma brain tumor or know someone who does, try this diet! It can make a difference.