University of Southern California
Presentation Abstract
Fasting Mimicking Diets in Cancer Treatment and Prevention
Chronic dietary interventions have been known for decades to help prevent disease and extend longevity, yet most are difficult to adopt especially long-term. Brief periods of a diet that mimics fasting by regulating key starvation response genes including IGF-1 and TOR-S6K lasting between 4 and 7 days and followed by long periods on a normal diet, are emerging as potentially effective anti-cancer and pro-longevity interventions. These periodic fasting mimicking diets (FMD) provide low plant based calories, sugars, and proteins and high levels of unsaturated fats. In mice, 4-day bi-monthly cycles of the FMD started at middle age extend longevity, reduce tumors by nearly 50%, and reduce inflammatory diseases. In humans, 3 monthly cycles of a 5-day FMD reduce markers or risk factors for aging and age-related diseases. FMD cycles are also beginning to emerge as potent integrative therapies supporting standard of care drugs in the treatment of different tumors. Here, I will present our mouse and clinical studies indicating that FMD cycles reduce risk factors/markers of aging and age-related diseases, and potentiate various cancer therapies.
About Dr. Longo
Valter Longo, Ph.D., is a professor of gerontology and biological sciences and the director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California’s Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, one of the leading centers for research on aging and age-related disease. Longo is also the director of the Longevity and Cancer Program at the IFOM Institute of Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy, and the founder and president of the Create Cures Foundation, based in Los Angeles and Milan.
Longo has received numerous awards for his work: the 2010 Nathan Shock Lecture Award from the National Institute on Aging, the 2013 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research from the American Federation for Aging Research, and the 2016 Glenn Award for research on aging.
In 2018, Longo was named one of Time magazine’s fifty most influential people in health care. With the profits from his books, including the international bestseller The Longevity Diet, Longo has established the Create Cures Foundation, which offers treatment options to patients with serious diseases, educates both adults and children on to live a long and healthy life, and sponsors research to identify innovative and affordable therapies.
Dr. Longo disclosed the following conflicts of interest for this workshop: equity interest in Nutra, a company producing medical food; patents related to medical food.