SynthesisMedical oncology (Northwood, London, England)2020
Ketogenic diets in medical oncology: a systematic review with focus on clinical outcomes.
Synthesis in Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 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
41 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Gut microbiome changes and cancer immunotherapy outcomes associated with dietary interventions: a systematic review of preclinical and clinical evidence.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Pooled it
- European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) Position Statement on Medical Nutrition Therapy for the Management of Individuals with Overweight or Obesity and Cancer.Obesity facts · 2025Guideline
- The use of ketogenic diets in cancer patients: a systematic review.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Cross-tissue immune profiling of APOE ε4 reveals early dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Survival outcomes of rectal and head and neck cancer patients receiving radio(chemo)therapy with a ketogenic diet. A post-hoc analysis from the KETOCOMP trial.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2026Article
- The effects of dietary fat on gut microbial composition and function in a mouse model of ovarian cancer.Journal of ovarian research · 2025Article
- Nutritional ketosis modulates the methylation of cancer-related genes in patients with obesity and in breast cancer cells.Journal of physiology and biochemistry · 2025Article
- Critical Review of Ketogenic Diet Throughout the Cancer Continuum for Neuroglioma: Insights from a Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) Perspective.Current nutrition reports · 2025Review
- Comprehensive Overview of Ketone Bodies in Cancer Metabolism: Mechanisms and Application.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- Article
- Clinical research framework proposal for ketogenic metabolic therapy in glioblastoma.BMC medicine · 2024Review
- Targeting fatty acid oxidation enhances response to HER2-targeted therapy.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Ketogenic diet does not promote triple-negative and luminal mammary tumor growth and metastasis in experimental mice.Clinical & experimental metastasis · 2024Article
- Investigating the Effectiveness of a Carb-Free Oloproteic Diet in Fibromyalgia Treatment.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Take metabolic heterogeneity into consideration when applying dietary interventions to cancer therapy: A review.Heliyon · 2023Review
- The Beneficial and Adverse Effects of Autophagic Response to Caloric Restriction and Fasting.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Review
- Unrestricted Ketogenic Diet Feeding Enhances Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Growth In Vivo.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Integrative Medicine for Ovarian Cancer.Current oncology reports · 2023Review
- Plant-Based and Ketogenic Diets As Diverging Paths to Address Cancer: A Review.JAMA oncology · 2022Review
- Developing dietary interventions as therapy for cancer.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Preclinical data provide evidence for synergism between ketogenic diets (KDs) and other oncological therapies. The aim of this systematic review was to summarize data from clinical studies that have tested KDs along with other treatments used within medical oncology. The PubMed database was searched using the key words "ketogenic" AND ("cancer" OR "glioblastoma"). A secondary search was conducted by screening the reference lists of relevant articles on this topic. Relevant studies for this review were defined as studies in which KDs were used complementary to surgery, radio-, chemo-, or targeted therapy and at least one of the following four outcomes were reported: (i) Overall survival (OS); (ii) progression-free survival (PFS); (iii) local control rate; (iv) body composition changes. Twelve papers reporting on 13 clinical studies were identified. Nine studies were prospective and six had a control group, but only two were randomized. KD prescription varied widely between studies and was described only rudimentarily in most papers. Adverse events attributed to the diet were rare and only minor (grade 1-2) except for one possibly diet-related grade 4 event. Studies reporting body composition changes found beneficial effects of KDs in both overweight and frail patient populations. Beneficial effects of KDs on OS and/or PFS were found in four studies including one randomized controlled trial. Studies in high-grade glioma patients were not sufficiently powered to prove efficacy. Evidence for beneficial effects of KDs during cancer therapy is accumulating, but more high-quality studies are needed to assess the overall strength of evidence.
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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.