ReviewMedical oncology (Northwood, London, England)2017
Beneficial effects of ketogenic diets for cancer patients: a realist review with focus on evidence and confirmation.
Review in Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England), 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 133 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Perspective: Do Fasting, Caloric Restriction, and Diets Increase Sensitivity to Radiotherapy? A Literature Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Trial
- Efficacy of ketogenic diet on body composition during resistance training in trained men: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2018Trial
- Ketogenic diet as a systems-level immunometabolic sensitization strategy in cancer therapy: integrating metabolism, immune reprogramming, microbiome dynamics, and epigenetic regulation.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2026Review
- Intranasal Delivery of Solid Lipid Nanoparticles Loaded with Carmustine and Temozolomide for Glioblastoma Treatment in Mice.AAPS PharmSciTech · 2026Article
- Ketogenic Diet as an Adjuvant in Epithelial Cancers: Mechanisms, Model Systems, and Translational Opportunities.Cancers · 2026Review
- Ketogenic and Low-Carbohydrate Diets in Prostate Cancer: Metabolic Rationale, Preclinical Evidence, and Preliminary Clinical Data.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Dietary Fat Content Influences PanIN Progression and Pancreatic Cancer Development in Mice.Cancer research communications · 2026Article
- How the Ketogenic Diet Shapes the Microbiome to Influence Cancer Immunotherapy Outcomes: An Exploration of Clinical Trials and Their Results.Nutrition and cancer · 2026Review
- Dietary Fat Content Influences PanIN Progression and Pancreatic Cancer Development in Mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Gut microbiome and nutritional strategies in gastrointestinal cancers: Clinical implications and therapeutic perspectives.World journal of clinical oncology · 2025Review
- The planetary diet: a nutritional utopia in conflict with human evolution.Nutrition & metabolism · 2025Article
- Ketone bodies and cancer risk in the general population: The prevention of renal and vascular end-stage disease (PREVEND) study.European journal of clinical investigation · 2025Article
- Ketogenic diet and cancer: multidimensional exploration and research.Science China. Life sciences · 2025Review
- Metabolism of tumor infiltrating T cells.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Clinical research framework proposal for ketogenic metabolic therapy in glioblastoma.BMC medicine · 2024Review
- Ketogenic diet does not promote triple-negative and luminal mammary tumor growth and metastasis in experimental mice.Clinical & experimental metastasis · 2024Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ketogenic diets (KDs) have gained popularity among patients and researchers alike due to their putative anti-tumor mechanisms. However, the question remains which conclusions can be drawn from the available human data thus far concerning the safety and efficacy of KDs for cancer patients. A realist review utilizing a matrix analytical approach was conducted according to the RAMESES publication standards. All available human studies were systematically analyzed and supplemented with results from animal studies. Evidence and confirmation were treated as separate concepts. In total, 29 animal and 24 human studies were included in the analysis. The majority of animal studies (72%) yielded evidence for an anti-tumor effect of KDs. Evidential support for such effects in humans was weak and limited to individual cases, but a probabilistic argument shows that the available data strengthen the belief in the anti-tumor effect hypothesis at least for some individuals. Evidence for pro-tumor effects was lacking completely. Feasibility of KDs for cancer patients has been shown in various contexts. The probability of achieving an anti-tumor effect seems greater than that of causing serious side effects when offering KDs to cancer patients. Future controlled trials would provide stronger evidence for or against the anti-tumor effect hypothesis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.