Clinical review of alkalization therapy in cancer treatment

Abstract

One of the most unique characteristics of cancer metabolism is activated aerobic glycolysis, which is called the “Warburg effect”, and is a hallmark of cancer. An acidic tumor microenvironment (TME) resulting from activated anaerobic glycolysis is associated with cancer progression, multi-drug resistance, and immune escape. Several in vitro and in vivo studies reported that neutralization of the acidic TME by alkalizing agents, such as bicarbonate, resulted in the suppression of cancer progression and a potential benefit for anti-cancer drug responses. In clinical settings, alkalizing effects were achieved not only by alkalizing agents, but also by a following a particular diet. An epidemiological study demonstrated that more fruits and vegetables and less meat and dairy products are associated with an increase in urine pH, which may reflect the alkalizing effect on the body. However, it remains unclear whether alkaline dietary intervention improves the effects of cancer treatment. Moreover, there are few clinical reports to date regarding cancer treatments being performed on patients together with alkalization therapy. In this review, we investigated whether alkalization therapy, which includes an alkaline diet and/or alkalizing agents, improves cancer treatment.

L-DOS47 enhances response to immunotherapy in pancreatic cancer tumor

“…More recently, patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (UMIN000035659) [40] and small cell lung cancer (UMIN000043056) [41] did show improved outcomes when receiving alkalization treatment, which included an alkaline diet and/or oral sodium bicarbonate (3.0-5.0 g/day). However, these were retrospective analyses of non-randomized single-center studies that included only a small number of patients [42].…”

Circumventing challenges in mitochondrial targeting for cancer treatment: leveraging nanoplatforms for effective solutions

“…Challenges encompass PS (photosensitizer) variability, precise tumor targeting, potential toxicity, immunogenicity, biodistribution, and the search for an ideal PS profile for optimal antitumor efficacy. 71…”

The Prime and Integral Cause of Cancer in the Post-Warburg Era

“…On the contrary, NHE1 hyperactivity and/or upregulation of this and/or other membrane-bound proton pumps (PP) and transporters (PT) induces not only CDDP resistance by elevating pHi, but also multiple drug resistance (MDR), as it was long ago shown in seminal and similar studies on the parallelism between adriamycin resistance and progressive increases in pHi [77][78][79] (Figure 1). An increasing number of studies also advise the utilization of alkalizing therapy to counter the microenvironmental acidity of tumors and, in this way, improve chemotherapy resistance, anticancer immunity and deactivate the metastatic process [80]. Most recently too, fermented wheat germ extract (FWGE) has been shown to inhibit metastatic tumor dissemination during and after chemotherapy, surgery, and/or radiation in cancer patients.…”