Research Type: Prostate Cancer
Project Description
Despite recent successes, immunotherapy still only benefits a subset of cancer patients, as some cancer types are resistant to treatment. It may be possible to overcome immunotherapy resistance through dietary modulation. This would be particularly beneficial for solid tumors, such as prostate cancer, which are generally nonresponsive to immunotherapy. Modifying the diet may provide a non-toxic alternative to pharmaceutical drugs to enable effective cancer immunotherapy and improve the survival and wellness of cancer patients. Dr. Lu’s research group hypothesizes that a ketogenic diet may help overcome resistance to immunotherapy. They will use novel immunotherapy-resistant cancer models to unravel how a ketogenic diet affects metabolism and tumor immunity, to assess how effective diet-enhanced immunotherapy may be. Future studies may benefit many patients suffering from immunotherapy-resistant cancers.
