Mediterranean Diet Boosts Immune System to Fight Against Skin Cancer

Is the Mediterranean diet good for skin cancer patients? Diet rich in fiber, and mono-and polyunsaturated fats improves response to drugs acting on the immune system.

Highlights:

Diet plays an important role in preventing as well as managing a variety of health conditions
Following a Mediterranean diet may boost immunotherapy in skin cancer patients
This diet was also found to be associated with improved progression-free survival rates

Mediterranean diet can improve immunotherapy response in people with advanced melanoma (the most serious type of skin cancer), according to new research presented at a conference held by the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

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‘Consuming the Mediterranean diet is considered a powerful and manageable way to increase the survival rate in patients with advanced skin cancer.’

What is the Mediterranean diet?

The Mediterranean diet is an eating pattern that includes the food staples of people who live in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea, such as Spain, Greece, Italy, and France.

This diet emphasizes a plant-based eating approach loaded with vegetables and healthy fats, including olive oil and omega-3 fatty acids from fish. It’s a diet known for being heart-healthy. In this diet plan, you will have to limit or avoid red meat, sugary foods, dairy, and processed foods ().

In this study, researchers report that a Mediterranean diet rich in fiber, mono-unsaturated fatty acids, and polyphenols has been associated with improved immunotherapy response rates and progression-free survival in people with advanced melanoma.

The immunotherapy drugs are called immune checkpoint inhibitors. These inhibitors are among the most effective treatments for melanoma because they work by blocking checkpoints in a person’s immune system, which then forces the body’s T cells to attack cancer cells.

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Mediterranean diet has long been considered one of the healthiest diets on the planet. This diet plan discourages the use of saturated fats and hydrogenated oils while cooking meals.

Does Diet influence Immunotherapy?

Researchers conducting the multi-center study recorded the dietary intake of 91 people with advanced melanoma who were treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs and monitored their progress with regular radiographic response check-ups.

The people in the study were not put on a specific diet, but they were asked to fill in a detailed dietary questionnaire before treatment, through which researchers assessed their dietary habits.

They found that eating whole grains and legumes reduced the likelihood of developing drug-induced immune-related side effects such as colitis. In contrast, red and processed meat were associated with a higher probability of immune-related side effects ().

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Benefits of a Mediterranean diet in Skin Cancer

Historically, nutrition has been somewhat neglected in prospective studies within oncology. However, this is changing and several studies examining nutrition as an anti-cancer therapy are underway worldwide.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors have improved the prognosis across several tumor types at the advanced stage. However, not all people with cancer respond to this treatment.

Some patients develop drug-induced immune-related side effects such as colitis, which is inflammation of the gut. In such a scenario, the Mediterranean diet plays an important role to reduce the side effects.

Experts expect that diet will play an important role in the success of immunotherapy and clinical trials are being expanded to investigate outcomes for different tumor types, including digestive cancers ().

The relationship between immune checkpoint inhibitor response with diet and the gut microbiome offers a promising and exciting future to enhance treatment responses.

References:

Mediterranean dietary pattern and skin cancer risk: A prospective cohort study in French women - (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31380561/)
Cancer and Mediterranean Diet: A Review - (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770822/)
Mediterranean diet and cancer: epidemiological evidence and mechanism of selected aspects - (https://bmcsurg.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2482-13-S2-S14)

Source-Medindia