The answer to slowing deadly brain tumors may, in part, lie in what is on the dinner table.
Gliomas are tumors that form in the brain or spinal cord. They can be slow-growing, as in the tumor actress Busy Philipps was diagnosed with this year, or highly aggressive, like those experienced by John McCain, Beau Biden and Sophie Kinsella.
Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research at Northwell Health say they may have identified a way to curb the growth of these tumors — through a carefully designed dietary intervention.
A study published Tuesday found that fast-growing, high-grade gliomas share a metabolic defect with GAMT deficiency, a rare genetic disorder affecting children. These tumors arise when supportive brain cells grow and divide out of control.
The defect causes the production of a toxic chemical that alters brain activity and appears to drive tumor growth. Researchers found that a targeted diet could modify this process and slow the tumors’ progression.
In laboratory testing, scientists gave mice the specialized medical diet used to treat children with the disorder. The approach dramatically slowed cancer growth in the rodents.
“The diet that we are considering for this trial is not really, say, a Mediterranean diet or a ketogenic diet,” Dr. Kalil Abdullah, director for central nervous system cancer at Northwell Health’s Brain Tumor Center, said. “It’s a diet under medical supervision that restricts very specific types of food.”
The team discovered that tumors release excess amounts of guanidinoacetate, or GAA, into the brain. The chemical causes nearby brain cells to become overactive.
That heightened activity seems to accelerate tumor growth, effectively enabling the cancer to hijack the brain’s normal signals to support its own survival.
Children with GAMT deficiency also had elevated GAA levels. In that rare condition, the body cannot properly break down the chemical, which can lead to seizures and epilepsy.
READ MORE: Judge Seals Lindsay Clancy Juror Names Indefinitely Over Safety Fears
The researchers used the dietary approach used to manage GAMT deficiency to see if it could also slow tumor growth in mice.
Along with turning off the enzyme (AGAT) that makes GAA in tumor cells, the mice were fed a diet that restricted the amino acid arginine and added extra ornithine, another amino acid.
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, and are found in many foods including meat, eggs and grains.
Using extra tissue from tumors removed during brain surgery, the team was able to detect particular DNA, chemicals and other components of the tumors.
“We found that one particular molecule, in this case, GAA, was really wildly different in glioblastoma than it was in other kinds of brain tumor or in the normal brain,” Abdullah said. “And once we discovered that, we started to look into why.”
The findings suggest the diet could potentially be used before treatment for glioblastoma, although it has not yet been established as a treatment for people with the disease.
“Because the human body adapts so quickly, we can have patients change their diet for just three to five days before surgery,” Abdullah said.
“And then we’ll be able to do the surgery as planned, but we’ll be able to measure this molecule and see if the diet has already made a difference.”
Abdullah and his team plan to put their findings into practice with a clinical trial beginning in 2027.