In recent years, the scientific community has noted with interest the potential of controlled fasting to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the treatment of certain cancers in animal models, while minimizing its adverse effects. This line of research is a specialty of the IMDEA Food Metabolic Syndrome group, directed by Dr. Pablo José Fernández-Marcos, who has extended his studies to explore whether the sex of the animals influences the impact on the immune system of combining fasting and chemotherapy in cancer treatment.
The findings could open new avenues for more effective and less harmful treatments, and highlight how hormonal factors can modulate the body’s response to these therapies.
Sexual dimorphism in response to fasting
Recently, a collaborative study with the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), published in the journal Cancer Communications, has evaluated this theory for the first time in male and female mice with melanoma, and with testosterone as a relevant factor. The results indicate that males experience a more significant impact on their immune system when fasting is combined with chemotherapy, such as doxorubicin or oxaliplatin, compared to females. However, no differences were observed in the response of both sexes in another case of colorectal adenocarcinoma, suggesting a notable complexity in the interaction between treatments and different types of the disease. This finding underscores the importance of considering sex differences when designing more precise, personalized therapies for cancer treatment, ensuring that therapeutic regimens are specifically tailored to individual needs.
The study led by Pablo José Fernández-Marcos has shown that the combination of fasting with chemotherapy significantly enhances the activity of Natural Killer and Natural Killer T cells in cases of melanoma, as well as CD8 lymphocytes in colorectal adenocarcinoma. The leader of the research highlights that the research reveals what is known as “sexual dimorphism in the response to fasting” which, as he states, “has significant translational implications, especially in tumors such as melanoma, where testosterone, the sex hormone male, plays a crucial role in the effects of fasting.”
The team includes Lola Martínez, from the Flow Cytometry Unit, and Alejo Efeyan, who leads the Metabolism and Cellular Signaling Group at the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO).
Additionally, the project has had the collaboration of specialists from the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Center (CBM) and the San Pablo CEU University. With the predominant financial support from Spanish public institutions, the research has also received financial support from the Spanish Association against Cancer (AECC).
Source: CNIO
