Starving Tumours through Intermittent Fasting: Metabolic Allee Effect Leads to Growth Control
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The Allee effect, characterized by a decline in individual fitness at low population sizes, has been a significant ecological concept. Drawing inspiration from the metabolic scaling laws proposed by Kleiber [1] and the von Bertalanffy growth model [2], we explore the implications of the Allee effect in the context of aggressive tumours. Our study revealed that certain aggressive tumours can exhibit spontaneous emergence of the Allee effect, leading to potential metabolic extinction. By conducting a stability analysis of the von Bertalanffy equation, we uncovered that a tumour’s metabolic requirements may render it susceptible to extinction under specific conditions. Building upon these theoretical insights, we further investigated whether these predictions could actually happen in the real world. For this purpose, we analysed data from cancer patients with different tumour types (brain metastases, gliomas, meningiomas and lung cancers) [3] and identified a subgroup of patients who could have benefited from intermittent energy-deprivation interventions. Through computational estimations, we quantified the potential gain in survival for these responding patients. Our findings highlight the therapeutic opportunities presented by intermittent energy-deprivation interventions, which exploit the Allee effect in aggressive tumours. This novel approach seeks to induce metabolic extinction and inhibit tumour growth by strategically depriving the tumour cells of energy resources. The implications of our study suggest a promising avenue for developing targeted therapeutic interventions aimed at harnessing the Allee effect against aggressive tumours, potentially benefiting cancer patients with non-invasive approaches.
