A recent study published in the international journal PLoS ONE [PLoS One 2012;7(5):e36197] from St. Joseph’s Hospital reveals that a ketogenic diet can be effective in treating brain tumor cells using a combined diet and radiation therapy technique. In the article, the researchers stated that a ketogenic diet combined with radiation therapy could be effective in treating malignant gliomas (a type of malignant neurobrain tumor) in individuals. The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that alters an individual’s metabolism and is used to treat epilepsy in children. The dynamic balancing effect of this diet on the brain could help researchers develop therapies for other neurological disorders. In this study, the researchers treated mice with a standard or ketogenic diet for high levels of malignant gliomas, and the mice were treated with radiation therapy, and found that the group of mice fed the ketogenic diet had a median survival increase of up to five days compared to the group of mice on the standard diet. Nine of 11 mice treated with both the ketogenic diet and radiation therapy did not show any signs of tumor recurrence. The researchers analyzed the success of the ketogenic diet with radiation therapy in suppressing brain tumors, suggesting that the therapy reduced the excitability of growth factors and inhibited tumor growth. The researchers also believe that this may also reduce the development of inflammation and swelling around the tumors. We found that the ketogenic diet significantly enhanced the antitumor effects of radiation, which suggests that the combination of these two approaches may be effective in suppressing the development of human malignant gliomas,” said Scheck. He added that the ketogenic diet could be added quickly and easily to brain tumor therapies that are currently in clinical trials by investigators, but are not currently approved by the FDA.