Study links Mediterranean diet with improved efficacy of immunotherapy for patients with metastatic melanoma
- Study links Mediterranean diet with improved efficacy of immunotherapy for patients with metastatic melanoma
- Mediterranean diet high in whole grains, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables rich in fiber, unsaturated fat, antioxidants and polyphenols demonstrates improved immunotherapy response
- Mediterranean dietary pattern associated with positive response to immune checkpoint blockade, a relatively new and successful treatment against severe cancers
St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands, February 16, 2023 - Scientists at the Netherlands’ University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) together with researchers at King’s College London (KCL) revealed the encouraging results of their most recent dietary study in today’s edition of JAMA Oncology. Their study demonstrated that eating a Mediterranean diet, a dietary pattern high in whole grains, fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables that is rich in fiber, unsaturated fat, antioxidants and polyphenols is associated with an improved immunotherapy response in patients with metastatic melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer.
Here is the JAMA link: https://edhub.ama-assn.org/jn-learning/audio-player/10.1001/jamaoncol.2023.75 and an Adobe version of the study is available upon request.
The study, supported by the Seerave Foundation, an innovative grant-making family foundation, showed that a Mediterranean dietary pattern was positively associated with the response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), which is a relatively new and highly successful form of immunotherapy against severe cancers. These drugs cause the immune system to recognize, clear and destroy cancer cells.
The UMCG and King’s College teams found that diet has the potential to improve ICB efficacy and tolerability. A potential mechanism underlying this association between diet and immunotherapy response is the gut microbiome. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown immunomodulatory and anti-tumor activities of several nutrients—including fiber, polyphenols, and antioxidants—that are mediated via the gut microbiome.
Today’s JAMA Oncology study, authored by UMCG’s Laura Bolte, Johannes Björk, Geke Hospers and Rinse Weersma, together with their colleagues at King’s College London, Karla Lee, Veronique Bataille and Tim Spector, analyzed the dietary habits of 91 patients with advanced melanoma. They were all treated with checkpoint inhibitors and followed for 12 months. CT scans were used to measure the effect of immunotherapy on patients, and progression-free survival established after one year.
“Immunotherapy revolutionized the treatment of different types of advanced cancer,” noted Bolte, dietician, MD and PhD candidate. “Our study shows that dietary habits could play a role in improving the treatment outcomes and patient survival.”
In an earlier study, “Cross-cohort gut microbiome associations with immune checkpoint inhibitor response in advanced melanoma,” the group showed that the composition of the gut microbiome affects this type of cancer treatment. Nature Medicine (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01695-5).
Research Findings Could be Transferable to other Kinds of Cancer
Study results suggest that diet will play an important role in the success of immunotherapy. The researchers are now investigating whether these findings are transferable to other types of cancer.
“The connection between the immune system, diet and the gut microbiome is promising to improve the effect of immunotherapy,” says Bolte. “As treatment with checkpoint inhibitors is extended to several tumor types, including digestive cancers, these studies could provide treatment benefits for a large group of cancer patients in the future.”
Professor Tim Spector, a co-lead of the study from King’s College London, said: “The connection between the diet, gut microbes and helping the immune system fight cancer is one of the most exciting areas of medical research. In our previous publications we’ve clearly shown the importance of a gut friendly diet on improving your chances of surviving a cancer.”
He added: “Medical practice is often falling behind the latest findings on diet and gut microbes, but I believe all cancer patients should now be given potentially lifesaving dietary advice such as increasing plant diversity, reducing junk food and adding fermented foods before starting therapies.”
Large prospective studies from different geographies are needed to confirm the findings and further elucidate the role of diet in the context of ICB. Clinical intervention studies investigating the effect of a high-fiber diet, a ketogenic, low-carbohydrate diet and additional administration of omega-3s are ongoing.
Seerave Foundation CEO Manuel Fankhauser, Ph.D., says the results published today are encouraging news for cancer patients worldwide. “While we are just scratching the surface on how nutrition and a better understanding of the microbiome can advance cancer care, more and more evidence is surfacing that those may indeed be powerful parameters to be optimized during a patient’s journey. We will continue to work with world-leading organizations to ultimately help prevent and defeat cancer and other immune-related diseases by enabling personalized modulation of the nutrition-microbiome-immune system axis.”
About University Medical Center Groningen
The University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) is an academic medical and tertiary referral center in the North of the Netherlands. The oncology care in the UMCG is provided by 16 multidisciplinary tumor working groups which treat different tumor types.
UMCG has been actively conducting research on the influence of gut microbiota on health. In April 2022, Rinse Weersma and his team at the UMCG published “Environmental factors shaping the gut microbiome in a Dutch population” in Nature. The research on immune checkpoint blockade started in 2012 when Geke Hospers (medical oncologist) and Rinse Weersma (gastroenterologist) observed a higher occurrence of colitis in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) Consequently, the UMCG started setting up a cohort to investigate the role of the gut microbiome in ICB-treated patients. In 2019, efforts at UMCG and KCL were joint under the framework Predicting Response to Immunotherapy for Melanoma with Gut Microbiome and Metabolics (PRIMM) study,” with each center collecting dietary data and fecal samples using aligned protocols.
About King’s College London
King’s College London (KCL) is one of the top 35 UK universities in the world, one of the top 10 in Europe (QS World University Rankings, 2020/21) and among the oldest in England. KCL has more than 31,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and approximately 8,500 staff.
KCL has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), King’s maintained its sixth position for ‘research power’ in the UK. KCL has also been rated third among multidisciplinary institutions for impact, with 67.8 percent of its research impact rated outstanding.
Since its founding, KCL students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. KCL will continue to focus on world-leading education, research, and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world. Their website offers more about Vision 2029, KCL’s strategic vision, “World-changing ideas. Life-changing impact” to take the university to the 200th anniversary of its founding. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/headlines.aspx
About Seerave Foundation
The Seerave Foundation is driven by the conviction that collaboration will accelerate science and catalyze innovation to enable personalized cancer treatment. Seerave focuses on augmenting current cancer therapies with novel and benign approaches based on personalized modulation of the nutrition, microbiome, and immune system axis. Evidence-based methods will lead to clinically proven benefits for patients and contribute to more accessible health care systems.
The Seerave Foundation supports key groups across the full spectrum of scientific and clinical research and is building coalitions with other organizations to accelerate key enabling initiatives such as the Microbiota Vault.
Founded by British entrepreneur David Rees whose wife, Eva Rees, survived Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma, the Seerave Foundation includes the active involvement of the Rees family and an interdisciplinary team composed of PhD level scientists supporting the family with their diverse skill sets in science, engineering, design thinking and entrepreneurship. https://seerave.org/
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