Starving cancer cells of fat may improve cancer treatment

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Oct. 22, 2024) — Cutting off cancer cells’ access to fat may help a specific type of cancer treatment work more effectively, reports a study by Van Andel Institute scientists.  

The findings, published in Cell Chemical Biology, lay the groundwork for developing tailored dietary strategies to help anti-cancer medications better kill malignant cells.

“We want to make cancer treatment more effective,” said Evan Lien, Ph.D., an assistant professor at VAI and the study’s corresponding author. “The best way to do this is by understanding how cancer cells behave and identifying ways to break through their defenses. Our findings are an important step toward evidence-based diets that could one day augment existing therapies.”

Fats are critical nutrients required for healthy function. Cancer cells hijack normal cellular processes and steal resources like fats, which then act as fuel for sick cells to grow and spread.

The study focused on ferroptosis, a type of cell death that occurs when fat molecules in cancer cells experience damage. In recent years, targeting ferroptosis has emerged as an increasingly promising avenue for developing new anti-cancer strategies.

Many of the mechanisms that enable cancer cells to grow uncontrollably also allow them to avoid cellular quality control processes that usually kill and remove sick cells. Ferroptosis can be an exception, which makes it a potentially powerful tool to leverage in cancer treatment.

Using cell models, Lien and his team showed that removing cancer cells’ access to fats makes them highly sensitive to ferroptosis and, by extension, drugs that induce ferroptosis.

The findings are promising, Lien says, but much more work is needed to replicate the discovery in other models of cancer. He and his team also are investigating if the type and amount of fat can be manipulated through diet to make ferroptosis inducers work more effectively.

“Diet is something that’s relatively easy to modify,” Lien said. “We’re not there yet, but the thing we’re most excited about is how we might be able to use what we learn to one day design diets tailored to different types of treatment. That could be transformative.”

Authors include Kelly H. Sokol, Cameron J. Lee, Thomas J. Rogers, Ph.D., Althea Waldhart, Abigail E. Ellis, Samuel R. Daniels, Rae J. House, Ph.D., Xinyu Ye, Mary Olsenavich, Amy Johnson, Benjamin R. Furness, and Ryan D. Sheldon, Ph.D. of VAI; and Sahithi Madireddy of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award nos. R00CA255928 (Lien) and T32CA251066 (P. Jones); and Van Andel Institute’s Metabolism & Nutrition (MeNu) Program. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or other funders.

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Van Andel Institute (VAI) is committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations through cutting edge biomedical research and innovative educational offerings. Established in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1996 by the Van Andel family, VAI is now home to more than 500 scientists, educators and support staff, who work with a growing number of national and international collaborators to foster discovery. The Institute’s scientists study the origins of cancer, Parkinson’s and other diseases and translate their findings into breakthrough prevention and treatment strategies. Our educators develop inquiry-based approaches for K–12 education to help students and teachers prepare the next generation of problem-solvers, while our Graduate School offers a rigorous, research-intensive Ph.D. program in molecular and cellular biology. Learn more at vai.org.