Unlocking Your Body’s Ability to Fight Cancer

The common saying, “You are what you eat,” may indeed be true. Consuming unhealthy food and beverages can put you at increased risk for developing chronic health conditions, obesity, and even 13 types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While this may seem disheartening, new research shows that nutritional consumption can influence how cancer patients respond to treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy.

How, exactly, can nutritional intake play into the molecular responsiveness of cancers to change the efficacy of cancer treatments and help save lives?

On today’s episode of Highway to Health, host David Kemp speaks with Virginia Casadas, VP, Head of Clinical Operations at Faeth, and Oliver Maddocks, Co-Founder and Head of Research at Faeth, to talk about the premise of their company and the clinical trials they are currently involved in to further examine nutrition in the context of sensitivity to cancer treatments.

Kemp, Casadas, and Maddocks also discussed…

1. Who Faeth is and the cancers Faeth has identified might be most receptive to nutrient control
2. The clinical trials Faeth currently has and what they are looking at with the trials
3. How Faeth is delivering guidance to patients through their app

Maddocks explained how nutrient control can impact responsiveness to other cancer treatments: “If you, as the patient, can control the nutrient levels to the tumor, you can kind of change that balance and increase the sensitivity and the efficacy.” He added, “The exact type of tumor that you have and the genotype makes a big contribution to what that tumor needs the most in terms of its nutrients. What we’re trying to do is understand the nutrient needs of tumors at that molecular level and then design diets that are really precisely controlled.”

Casadas elaborated on how Faeth’s clinical trials are capitalizing on controlled nutrition to improve cancer treatment outcomes. “Right now, in terms of the technology that’s used in the context of the trial, it’s with our registered dieticians and somewhat prescriptive by protocol.”

Virginia Casadas is the VP and Head of Clinical Operations at Faeth. She has previously served as Director of Clinical Operations at Stealth Biotech Startup and Vir Biotechnology, Inc., amongst other pharmaceutical and clinical roles. Casadas earned a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Science in Health Care Management from Saint Elizabeth University, and a Master’s Certificate in Applied Project from Villanova University.

Oliver Maddocks is co-founder and head of research at Faeth and a professor and group leader at the University of Glasgow. He was also a postdoctoral scientist and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Maddocks holds an MPharm in pharmacy from Cardiff University and a Ph.D. in cancer molecular biology from the University of Edinburgh. He currently has 30 scientific publications.