According to a new study involving mice, a simple dietary change could potentially help increase the survival rate of obese children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Researchers discovered that when obese mice with leukemia were switched to a low-fat diet, they were five times more likely to survive than subjects that continued to consume a high-fat diet. Lead researcher Dr. Steven Mittelman adds, “The most exciting thing to me about this study is the fact that this shows that a dietary intervention could potentially help us kill leukemia cells in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia… The current treatments for leukemia are very toxic, so finding a way to use a healthy diet, without increasing the toxicity of therapy to treat people with cancer, would be incredible.”

Cancer & Metabolism, October 2018