Fasting-mimicking diet blocks triple-negative breast cancer and cancer stem cell escape

Metastatic tumors remain lethal due to primary/acquired resistance to therapy or cancer stem cell (CSC)mediated repopulation. We show that a fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) activates starvation escape pathways in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells, which can be identified and targeted by drugs. In CSCs, FMD lowers glucose-dependent protein kinase A signaling and stemness markers to reduce cell number and increase mouse survival. Accordingly, metastatic TNBC patients with lower glycemia survive longer than those with higher baseline glycemia. By contrast, in differentiated cancer cells, FMD activates PI3K-AKT, mTOR, and CDK4/6 as survival/growth pathways, which can be targeted by drugs to promote tumor regression. FMD cycles also prevent hyperglycemia and other toxicities caused by these drugs. These data indicate that FMD has wide and differential effects on normal, cancer, and CSCs, allowing the rapid identification and targeting of starvation escape pathways and providing a method potentially applicable to many malignancies.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that a fasting-mimicking diet activates starvation escape pathways in TNBC cells and reduces stemness markers in CSCs, leading to decreased cell numbers and improved mouse survival. Additionally, the diet activates different survival/growth pathways in differentiated cancer cells, which can be targeted by drugs to promote tumor regression.