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Eating meat and fish can make cancer more deadly by helping it spread around the body, a study shows.
But scientists say the discovery offers hope of finding new treatments.
Seafood and meats, including beef and poultry, are rich in asparagine — one of the amino acids, or building blocks, which cells use to make proteins.
Tests on mice found cutting the intake of asparagine in the diet reduced the ability of cancer to spread.
Further analysis revealed people with a less active asparagine-producing gene had better survival rates for cancer of the breast, kidney, head and neck.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, who published their findings in Nature, said the findings suggest breast cancer patients should avoid high-asparagine foods.
Most cancer patients do not die from their primary tumor but from the spread of diseased cells to the lungs, brain, bones or other organs.
Finding ways to stop this from happening is key to increasing survival.
Study leader Professor Greg Hannon said: “This finding adds vital information to our understanding of how we can stop cancer spreading – the main reason patients die from their disease.
“The results are extremely suggestive that changes in diet might impact both how an individual responds to primary therapy and their chances of lethal disease spreading later in life.”
But Martin Ledwick, from Cancer Research UK, said: “At the moment, there is no evidence that restricting certain foods can help fight cancer.
“It’s important for patients to speak to their doctor before making any changes to their diet while having treatment.”
Reducing the amount of asparagine in the mice reduced the spread of cancer but had no impact on the development of their primary tumor, the journal Nature reports.
Researchers are now considering human trials to assess the impact of reducing dietary intake of asparagine.
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