Alkaline diet: What cancer patients should know

BY KELLIE BRAMLET BLACKBURN

There’s so much information surrounding cancer and diet that it can be hard to
separate the myths from the facts. That’s especially true when it comes to
trendy diets.

The alkaline diet is one such trendy diet that often comes up in conversations
about both cancer treatment and prevention.

So, to learn more about this diet we talked to Maria Petzel, a senior clinical
dietitian at MD Anderson. Here’s what she had to say.

What is the alkaline diet?

The alkaline diet is based on the theory that eating certain foods can change the
body’s acid levels, also called the pH levels. Some believe that changing the
body’s pH levels can improve your health and help you lose weight or even
prevent cancer.

But there’s no way the foods you eat can alter the pH level of your blood. The
body’s pH is a very tightly regulated system. If you change your diet, you may
see changes in the pH of your saliva or urine because these are waste products,
but there’s no way you could ever eat enough that it really impacts your blood.

What is alkaline water?

While we can’t comment on specific brands, most alkaline water is just like
bottled water with different mineral content. Alkaline water also can’t change
the pH of your blood.

What is the link between the alkaline diet and cancer?

Some studies have shown that acidic environments help cancer cells grow. So
the idea is that a diet high in alkaline foods (high pH) and low in acidic foods will
raise the body’s pH levels (make the body more alkaline) and prevent or even
cure cancer.

It should be noted that these are studies of cancer cells in a dish and do not
represent the complex nature of how tumors behave in the human body. And
food cannot change the pH of your blood.

What should cancer patients know before changing their diets?

Research shows that there’s no one diet or food that can cure cancer. But proper
nutrition can help you feel your best during cancer treatment – or at any time.

That’s why it’s so important to talk to a doctor or a dietitian before beginning a

new diet. This is true regardless of whether you have cancer. Different diet plans
work for different people, and your doctor or dietitian can help you determine if
a new diet will help you reach your health goals.

If you’re an MD Anderson patient, ask your doctor here to refer you to a clinical
dietitian. Each clinic at MD Anderson has an assigned dietitian who is available
to help patients at all stages of cancer treatment.

Your dietitian can assess your nutrition and talk with you about your nutrition
goals, which may change at different stages of treatment. Your dietitian can help
limit your diet’s adverse effects on your treatment, minimize side effects and
help you cope with new food sensitives that you’ve developed since your
diagnosis.

Together, you and your clinical dietitian can find the right diet to help you feel
your best.

Request an appointment at MD Anderson online or by calling 1-855-661-0399.

NEWS RELEASE 7-APR-2020

Pancreatic cancer blocked by disrupting
cellular pH balance
Study findings highlight the potential of targeting pH balance as therapeutic
approach to pancreatic cancer

SANFORD BURNHAM PREBYS MEDICAL DISCOVERY INSTITUTE

IMAGE: COSIMO COMMISSO, PH.D., AN ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN SANFORD

BURNHAM PREBYS' NCI-DESIGNATED CANCER CENTER view more

CREDIT: SANFORD BURNHAM PREBYS

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have found a new way to kill pancreatic
cancer cells by disrupting their pH equilibrium. The study, published in Cancer
Discovery, reports how depleting an ion transport protein lowers the pH to a
point that compromises pancreatic cancer cell growth.

Pancreatic cancer cells--like all cancer cells--have a constant need for energy to
support their growth and expansion. To meet these energy needs, they boost
metabolic pathways that normal cells don't use and, as a consequence, produce
excess acid that needs to be expelled. Increasingly, scientists have focused on
manipulating cancer cell pH as an approach to treat cancers lacking effective
therapies.

"Our study suggests that interfering with cellular pH represents a new

therapeutic avenue to treat pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers for
which there is currently no effective treatment," says Cosimo Commisso, Ph.D.,
an assistant professor in Sanford Burnham Prebys' NCI-designated Cancer
Center. "We have shown that a sodium-hydrogen exchanger called NHE7 plays a
significant role in pancreatic tumors, and by suppressing it, we can promote
cancer cell death."

Sodium-hydrogen exchange proteins

The NHE family of sodium-hydrogen exchangers are transport proteins that

regulate the internal pH of cells and their organelles such as endosomes and the
Golgi apparatus. They are located in membranes and work by exchanging
hydrogen ions (H+) for sodium ions (Na+) and are essential for proper cell
function.
"We hypothesized that the increased acid production that occurs in tumor cells
could be harnessed as a therapeutic vulnerability, so we looked for a strategy to
specifically target this," says Koen Galenkamp, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in
Commisso's lab and the first author of the study. "By mining a number of
pancreatic cancer databases, we found that NHE7 levels were higher in tumors
compared to normal pancreas, and highest in the tumors of patients with the
poorest prognoses."

With this information, the research team set out to understand the role of NHE7
in pancreatic cancer cells. They found that it localizes to the Golgi where it
imports hydrogen ions, creating an acidic Golgi and a corresponding alkaline
cytoplasm that supports cancer cell metabolism.

"This led us to test if we could make pancreatic cells vulnerable by disabling or

eliminating NHE7 to undermine the alkaline cytoplasmic pH they require to stay
fit," adds Galenkamp.

Through a series of experiments in pancreatic cancer cells, the research team

showed that suppressing NHE7 lowers the pH of the cell's cytoplasm, triggering
cell death. Importantly, in mice transplanted with human tumors, getting rid of
NHE7 caused tumors to shrink or completely stop their growth.

"Pancreatic cancer is predicted to soon become the second-leading cause of

cancer-related deaths in the U.S.," says Commisso. "Given that the five-year
survival rate for people newly diagnosed is less than 10%, it's crystal clear that
we need better therapies--and finding new cancer targets can help us tailor
treatments and possibly save the lives of many more patients."

Commisso adds, "This study illustrates the potential to target pH balance as an

approach to combat pancreatic cancer. Our next step is to work with the Conrad
Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics--the drug discovery facility at our
Institute--to find ways to disable NHE7 and limit the Golgi's ability to sequester
acid. If successful, cancer cells would be unable to maintain the proper pH that
they need to grow."

The study's DOI is 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-19-1007

Research reported in this press release was supported by the Department of
Defense (W81XWH-17-10316), the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (15-20-25-
COMM), the National Institutes of Health (R01DK099551), the National Cancer
Institute (CA030199), and the Rocket Fund. Koen Galenkamp is the recipient of a
Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of California Postdoctoral Fellowship
Award (T30FT0953).

About Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute

Sanford Burnham Prebys is a preeminent, independent biomedical research

institute dedicated to understanding human biology and disease and advancing
scientific discoveries to profoundly impact human health. For more than 40
years, our research has produced breakthroughs in cancer, neuroscience,
immunology and children's diseases, and is anchored by our NCI-designated
Cancer Center and advanced drug discovery capabilities. For more information,
visit us at SBPdiscovery.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/SBPdiscovery and
on Twitter @SBPdiscovery.