What is the Evidence to Support These Strategies?
Evidence Based vs. Evidence Informed Medicine
Traditional medicine and oncology rely upon “evidence based medicine” to guide treatment. This requires that new strategies need to be confirmed to have statistically significant benefit and limited risk in a randomized, controlled clinical trial before they are accepted as “standard of care”. This works relatively well for drug and device trials, but randomized trials of lifestyle interventions are challenging, expensive and may require many years or decades to complete.
Metabolic Oncology and Health Optimization Medicine rely on “evidence informed medicine” to guide health practices. This approach integrates information from many areas of biology and medicine including:
- Biochemical mechanisms
- Preclinical studies
- Epidemiology
- Case reports
- Non-randomized clinical studies
These strategies combine all available evidence to determine the benefits and risks of a specific health intervention in an individual person.
The Evidence for Lifestyle Interventions
There is abundant evidence confirming that favorable changes in the “four pillars” of metabolic health—nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress & emotional health—are associated with a lower risk of developing chronic diseases, including most cancers. The evidence for this comes from all of the areas of scientific investigation noted above.
Favorable lifestyle changes have also been demonstrated to improve outcomes for patients with cancer. This includes:
- Reduced side effects and improved outcomes after standard treatment
- Reduced risk of cancer recurrence
These benefits are demonstrated in preclinical studies, epidemiology studies and non-randomized clinical trials.
Randomized Clinical Trial Evidence
They have also been confirmed in randomized clinical trials, including:
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Two trials demonstrating improved outcomes in patients with breast cancer receiving chemotherapy and a ketogenic diet1,2
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One trial showing a lower risk of recurrence in patients with colorectal cancer who participated in a structured exercise program after standard treatment3
Learn More
A more detailed review of the scientific evidence supporting the benefits of lifestyle changes in cancer is found in the Knowledge Base section of the website.
We will continue to add new references and other educational content for specific aspects of Metabolic Oncology and Health Optimization Medicine in the Evidence Base section of the website over time.
References
1. Khodabakhshi A, et al. Effects of Ketogenic metabolic therapy on patients with breast cancer: A randomized controlled clinical trial. Clin Nutr. 2021.
2. Klement RJ, et al. Effects of a ketogenic diet during concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients with breast cancer. J Clin Med. 2020.
3. Courneya KS, et al. Effects of exercise during adjuvant chemotherapy on breast cancer outcomes. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2014.