title: Calorie restriction and cancer prevention: metabolic and molecular mechanisms.
abstract: An important discovery of recent years has been that lifestyle and environmental factors affect cancer initiation, promotion and progression, suggesting that many malignancies are preventable. Epidemiological studies strongly suggest that excessive adiposity, decreased physical activity, and unhealthy diets are key players in the pathogenesis and prognosis of many common cancers. In addition, calorie restriction (CR), without malnutrition, has been shown to be broadly effective in cancer prevention in laboratory strains of rodents. Adult-onset moderate CR also reduces cancer incidence by 50% in monkeys. Whether the antitumorigenic effects of CR will apply to humans is unknown, but CR results in a consistent reduction in circulating levels of growth factors, anabolic hormones, inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress markers associated with various malignancies. Here, we discuss the link between nutritional interventions and cancer prevention with focus on the mechanisms that might be responsible for these effects in simple systems and mammals with a view to developing chemoprevention agents.
authors.affiliation: The Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. vlongo@usc.edu
authors.forename: Valter D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Longo
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fontana
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D000818:Animals; D031204:Caloric Restriction; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D042822:Genomic Instability; D013006:Growth Hormone / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I / Q000502:physiology; D051379:Mice; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D007334:Insulin-Like Growth Factor I; D013006:Growth Hormone; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D017868:Cyclic AMP-Dependent Protein Kinases