A new study from the University of Zurich shows how diet could play a surprising role in helping fight childhood cancer. Researchers found that removing two amino acids from the diet made a promising cancer drug more than twice as effective in treating neuroblastoma, an aggressive tumor that affects young children.
The study, published in Nature, tested a combination therapy using difluoromethylornithine (DFMO), a drug recently approved in Switzerland, and a diet that eliminated proline and arginine, two amino acids that feed tumor growth. Together, the treatment slowed or even reversed tumor progression in mice while remaining well tolerated.
“We discovered that the effectiveness of DFMO can be more than doubled in mice when a targeted, proline- and arginine-free diet is applied under controlled conditions,” said Dr. Raphael Morscher, who led the research at the University of Zurich and the University Children’s Hospital Zurich.
Unlike many cancer treatments that destroy tumor cells, this approach reprograms the cancer cells to mature into more normal nerve cells.
“The treatment not only slows down tumor growth but also brings about a functional change in the cancer cells,” Morscher explained.
In the study, tumors grew more slowly or even regressed, and the therapy blocked the cells’ ability to make the molecules that drive uncontrolled growth.
The diet works by cutting off polyamines, compounds cancer cells use to multiply. By combining dietary amino acid restriction with DFMO, which also blocks polyamine production, the researchers were able to disrupt this growth pathway from two directions.
To prepare the therapy for clinical testing, Morscher’s team is now collaborating with scientists at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Princeton University.
“To bring this innovative approach into clinical trials, we are using an enzyme that replaces the diet in children,” Morscher said. “Our goal is to offer affected children a new and gentler treatment option in the future.”
The study adds to a growing body of evidence showing that nutrition can influence cancer metabolism. Tumor cells rely on distinct nutrients, and manipulating those pathways could help make conventional therapies more effective or less toxic.
This study was supported by the University of Zurich, the University Children’s Hospital Zurich and international research partners.