ReviewBMC cancer2018
To fast, or not to fast before chemotherapy, that is the question.
Review in BMC cancer, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 5 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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- Impact of intermittent fasting on patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy and/or targeted therapies: a systematic review of the literature.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Therapeutic Fasting in Reducing Chemotherapy Side Effects in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Perspective: Do Fasting, Caloric Restriction, and Diets Increase Sensitivity to Radiotherapy? A Literature Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2020Pooled it
- Nutritional Interventions to Improve Clinical Outcomes in Ovarian Cancer: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.Nutrients · 2019Pooled it
- Intersection of Precision Nutrition and Bladder Cancer: A Narrative State-of-the-Art Review of Potential Applications and Challenges.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- HOTAIR in cancer: diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic perspectives.Cancer cell international · 2024Review
- Effect of short-term fasting on the cisplatin activity in human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line HN5 and chemotherapy side effects.BMC cancer · 2024Article
- The increase in cell death rates in caloric restricted cells of the yeast helicase mutant rrm3 is Sir complex dependent.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Beneficial and Adverse Effects of Autophagic Response to Caloric Restriction and Fasting.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Review
- Review
- The Result of Vitamin C Treatment of Patients with Cancer: Conditions Influencing the Effectiveness.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Traditional and Medical Applications of Fasting.Nutrients · 2022Review
- Malnutrition management in oncology: An expert view on controversial issues and future perspectives.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
- Calorie Restriction for Cancer Prevention and Therapy: Mechanisms, Expectations, and Efficacy.Journal of cancer prevention · 2021Review
- Energy and caloric restriction, and fasting and cancer: a narrative review.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2021Review
- Review
- Pathophysiological mechanisms explaining poor clinical outcome of older cancer patients with low skeletal muscle mass.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2021Review
- Updated Understanding of Cancer as a Metabolic and Telomere-Driven Disease, and Proposal for Complex Personalized Treatment, a Hypothesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Adipocytes in hematopoiesis and acute leukemia: friends, enemies, or innocent bystanders?Leukemia · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Fasting in disease prevention and treatment has recently become a popular topic, particularly in the context of oncology. Unfortunately, the growing attention paid by the media has created a background of speculations and ambiguous messages. The attitude towards the role of fasting in cancer patients should be very cautious, as the risk of malnutrition/sarcopenia and disinformation may be associated with this approach. Whether the results obtained by fasting in the cellular and animal models can be transferred to cancer patients is still to be ascertained. At the moment, more preclinical studies are required to determine in which cancers, at which stage, and in what combinations fasting, fasting-mimicking diets or caloric restriction mimetics may prove effective. So, despite the "rumors" of marketing and media, nowadays fasting and calorie restriction around CT represent only a promising intuition, which requires proper efforts and time to be validated by evidence-based clinical data.
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.