Adopting a diet rich in fiber and based on plant-based products would slow the progression of this rare blood cancer which affects the bone marrow.
- After following a high-fiber diet for 12 weeks, two adults whose precancerous blood disorder progressed to multiple myeloma saw that the progression of their disease was delayed.
- Dietary changes also led to significant improvements in quality of life, insulin resistance, gut microbiome health and inflammation.
- On average, participants lost 8% of their body weight after three months.
Also called bone marrow cancer, multiple myeloma is characterized by the excessive proliferation in the bone marrow of a type of white blood cell, called plasma cell, which has become abnormal. “Poor quality diet, high body mass index (BMI), insulin resistance, unbalanced gut microbiota, inflammation as well as immune dysfunction have all been implicated in the progression to multiple myeloma,” said researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York.
Fruits, nuts, legumes… 20 patients followed a diet rich in fiber for three months
As part ofa studypresented at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego, they wanted to determine if a dietary intervention could have an impact on these modifiable risk factors and delay the progression of cancer. To do this, they recruited 20 people with a precancerous blood disorder and a high body mass index (BMI) and at risk of developing multiple myeloma.
For 12 weeks, the participants had to follow a diet based on foods of plant origin and rich in fiber. Specifically, they were encouraged to eat as much fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and legumes as they wanted. For 24 weeks, the volunteers were followed by a specialist. The team focused on BMI reduction, quality of life, metabolic markers (insulin, adiponectin, leptin, LDL cholesterol), gut microbiota, immune profiling in peripheral blood and bone marrow.
Multiple myeloma: progression to disease delayed through dietary intervention
The adoption of a diet rich in fiber improved the quality of life of patients and addressed modifiable risk factors: metabolic profile (a loss of 8% of their body weight, insulin resistance, adiponectin ratio leptin), microbiota profile (increased alpha diversity and butyrate producers) and immune subsets (decreased inflammation and increased anti-inflammatory classical monocytes). Two adults whose disease was progressing before surgery showed significant improvement in their disease progression trajectory. One year after enrollment, none of the participants had progressed to multiple myeloma.
These results were confirmed by an experiment carried out on mice, whose genome was modified to develop multiple myeloma, which were fed with products rich in fiber. “40% of the animals did not progress to multiple myeloma during the study period, whereas all rodents in the control group progressed to the pathology,” can we read in the works. According to the authors, this diet modulated the composition of the intestinal microbiota by promoting the expansion of butyrate-producing bacteria. “Short-chain fatty acids were increased in the feces of mice fed a high-fiber diet.”
Following these positive and encouraging data, Urvi Shah, who led the study, is currently recruiting people for a larger multicenter study, called “NUTRIVENTION-3”, which will involve 150 people.
