Can intermittent fasting help my 62-year-old mom with cancer?

Question

Hello doctor,

My mother is 62, and she was recently diagnosed with endometrial cancer. We just found out last week that it has also spread to her lungs, which has made everything so much scarier for our family. She has been trying intermittent fasting on her own because she read somewhere online that it helps the body fight cancer better and lose the extra weight her oncologist keeps telling her to manage.

She weighs around 196 pounds, and her CA-125 levels came back at 340, which the doctor said is quite elevated. She is currently on Carboplatin and Paclitaxel, and her next cycle is in 10 days.

She has not told her oncologist about the fasting yet because she thinks they will just ask her to stop without even explaining why. Can intermittent fasting actually help her body respond better to chemotherapy for endometrial cancer, or is it doing more harm than good during active treatment? Her energy levels are already dropping, and she skips meals sometimes for almost 18 hours.

Please help us understand what is safe.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Thank you so much for sharing your concern with me.

I hope you are doing well, and I wish your mother a speedy recovery. Regarding the spread of endometrial cancer, this is something expected because cancer can spread quickly outside the uterus, but this is not the main problem. The important point is that we now have many treatments and new medications that help control the disease and its spread, even when CA-125 (cancer antigen 125) is elevated. It can still be controlled at this stage.

We usually prefer immunotherapy or targeted therapy. These options are different from chemotherapy; they reduce metastasis and cause the shrinking of the tumor. We may also give Denosumab for bone metastasis to improve bone density, along with calcium and vitamin D.

She also needs full nutritional support and strong emotional support. You should not worry about metastasis because it can be under good control with immunotherapy.

Another important point is that intermittent fasting or restricted diets have no direct role in treating cancer or its spread. These approaches may help improve general physical activity or control conditions such as diabetes or hypertension, but if she is not diabetic or hypertensive, we recommend that she eat normally, including fruits and vegetables, and drink plenty of water. Strict dietary restriction is not recommended and has no role in treating the tumor.

I hope this explanation is clear, and if you have any questions at any time, do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you.