ArticleNature communications2025
Ketogenic diet suppresses colorectal cancer through the gut microbiome long chain fatty acid stearate.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Gut microbiota and diet in colorectal cancer: Converging determinants of carcinogenesis.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Cetobacterium somerae ZNN-1 promotes goblet cell differentiation through glutamine-mediated Notch signaling suppression.Journal of advanced research · 2026Article
- Ketogenic Diet as an Adjuvant in Epithelial Cancers: Mechanisms, Model Systems, and Translational Opportunities.Cancers · 2026Review
- Article
- Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Tumors: Implications in Oncogenesis and Therapeutic Response : Microbiome in Gastrointestinal Tumors.Current oncology reports · 2026Review
- Probiotics in colorectal cancer: mechanisms, biomarkers, and adjunct strategies.Cancer biology & medicine · 2026Review
- 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
- Intratumoral Microorganisms in Tumors: Current Understanding and Emerging Therapeutic Strategies.MedComm · 2026Review
- Article
- Anti-Cancer Effects of Quercetin: What Role Does the Gut Microbiota Play?Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Exploring the role of metabolic disorders and gut microbiome in immune checkpoint regulation in cancer: PI3K/AKT/mTOR focus.Journal of physiology and biochemistry · 2026Review
- Development of Stearic Acid Nanoemulsion for Therapeutic Delivery of Talazoparib Against Breast Cancer.Pharmaceutics · 2026Article
- Nutritional modulation of metabolic signaling within the tumor microenvironment for cancer therapy.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2026Review
- Antitumor Activity of the Ethanolic Extract fromPharmaceutics · 2026Article
- Ketosis as a Treatment for Severe Mental Illness: A Critical Review of Preclinical and Clinical Data.Current treatment options in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Targeting immunometabolism in cancer through pharmacological and lifestyle interventions.PLoS biology · 2026Review
- Gut Microbial Metabolism in Colorectal Cancer.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Review
- Crosstalk between mFrontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Acetoacetate suppresses colon cancer via an MR1-MAIT axis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
24 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients have been shown to possess an altered gut microbiome. Diet is a well-established modulator of the microbiome, and thus, dietary interventions might have a beneficial effect on CRC. An attenuating effect of the ketogenic diet (KD) on CRC cell growth has been previously observed, however the role of the gut microbiome in driving this effect remains unknown. Here, we describe a reduced colonic tumor burden upon KD consumption in a CRC mouse model with a humanized microbiome. Importantly, we demonstrate a causal relationship through microbiome transplantation into germ-free mice, whereby alterations in the gut microbiota were maintained in the absence of continued selective pressure from the KD. Specifically, we identify a shift toward bacterial species that produce stearic acid in ketogenic conditions, whereas consumers were depleted, resulting in elevated levels of free stearate in the gut lumen. This microbial product demonstrates tumor-suppressing properties by inducing apoptosis in cancer cells and decreasing colonic Th17 immune cell populations. Taken together, the beneficial effects of the KD are mediated through alterations in the gut microbiome, including, among others, increased stearic acid production, which in turn significantly reduces intestinal tumor growth.
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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.