Columbia Technology Ventures

Specialized diet for enhanced cancer treatment

This technology is a specially formulated diet that can enhance the efficacy of standard cancer treatments.

Unmet Need: Mitigation of side effects during cancer treatments

For many cancer patients, chemotherapy and radiation treatments are met with limited success and cause harmful side effects. As such, there is a growing interest in shifting cancer therapeutics from cytotoxic, non-specific agents to highly-selective therapeutics, including advanced nutritional therapies. However, there is currently no defined nutritional formula that effectively targets cancer while sufficiently meeting the patient’s caloric needs.

The Technology: Amino acid-restricted diet for improved chemotherapy and radiation

This technology is a specialized diet for the enhancement of standard cancer treatment. The formula includes all of the necessary nutrients to fulfill energetic needs, but specifically omits two sulfur-containing amino acids. This diet is shown to selectively sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapy and radiation without causing deleterious systemic effects. As such, this technology has the potential to improve outcomes from first-line treatment strategies in patients with diverse types of cancer.

This technology has been validated in a mouse model of glioma.

Applications:

  • Nutritional formula for the treatment of cancer
  • Enhancement of chemotherapy
  • Enhancement of radiotherapy
  • Potential treatment for neurological and metabolic disorders

Advantages:

  • Selectively targets cancer cells
  • Effectively synergizes with chemotherapy and radiation treatments
  • Satisfies energetic requirements of adult cancer patients

Lead Inventor:

Peter Canoll, M.D.

Brent Stockwell, Ph.D.

Dominique Higgins, M.D., Ph.D.

Patent Information:

Patent Pending

Tech Ventures Reference: