Therapeutic potential of β-hydroxybutyrate in the management of pancreatic neoplasms - exploring novel diagnostic and treatment strategies

Sep 21, 2026

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Pancreatic neoplasms represent a highly aggressive, often fatal cancer with substantial diagnostic and treatment challenges driven by late detection and nonspecific symptoms. Cancer progression relies on metabolic deregulation that supports proliferation, survival, and invasion, making metabolic pathways a strategic therapeutic target. This review evaluates ketogenic regimens, including ketone-body roles, to clarify diagnostic value across pancreatic tumor types and to assess anti-cancer effects alone or with chemotherapy as potential adjuvant therapy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

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Abstract

Introduction

New approaches for diagnosing pancreatic cancer

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

Vaezi etal. Lipids in Health and Disease (2024) 23:376 Lipids in Health and Disease [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12944-024-02368-7](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12944-024-02368-7) REVIEW Open Access Therapeutic potential of β-hydroxybutyrate in the management of pancreatic neoplasms: exploring novel diagnostic and treatment strategies Mohammad Amin Vaezi 1†, Samira Nekoufar 1†, Ali Karami Robati 1, Vahid Salimi2 and MasoumehTavakoli-Yaraki 1,3* Abstract Pancreatic neoplasm, a highly aggressive and often fatal cancer, poses challenges due to late detection and nonspecific symptoms. Therefore, both early diagnosis and appropriate therapeutic approaches are necessary to augment the condition of these patients. Cancer cells undergo metabolic deregulation, which enables their proliferation, survival, and invasion. As a result, it is crucial to focus on the metabolic pathways in prevalent cancersand explore treatment strategies that target these pathways to control tumor growth effectively. This is particularly relevant in cancers like pancreatic cancer, which undergo numerous metabolic alterations. The ketogenic regimen, characterized by low carbohydrate and protein contents and high-fat sources, does not involve caloric restriction. This allows for the induction of ketogenesis and an increase in ketone bodies, while insulin and glucose levels remain low even after meals. This unique metabolic state may influence the tumor microenvironment. Given the lack of unanimous agreement on the precise role and mechanism of the ketogenic diet, this review aims to clarify the diagnostic value and accuracy of ketone bodies in various types of pancreatic tumors and explore the potential anti-cancer effects of the ketogenic diet when used alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy, also to determine the potential of the ketogenic diet to be used as adjuvant therapy. The outcomes ofthis study are instrumental in enhancing our understanding of the benefits and drawbacks associated with employing this diet for the management and diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. †Mohammad Amin Vaezi and Samira Nekoufar contributed equally to this work and shared co-first author. *Correspondence: MasoumehTavakoli-Yaraki [tavakoli.m@iums.ac.ir](tavakoli.m@iums.ac.ir); [masoumeh.tavakoli@gmail.com](masoumeh.tavakoli@gmail.com) 1Department of Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, P. O. Box: 1449614535, Tehran, Iran 2Department of Virology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3Finetech in Medicine Research Center, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/l](vecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Graphical Abstract Keywords Β-hydroxybutyrate, Insulinoma, Ketogenic diet, Ketone body, Pancreatic cancer Introduction Pancreatic cancer comprises 2% of all cancer cases globally and it accounts for the fourth-leading cause of mortali

FAQs

Why is early diagnosis important in pancreatic neoplasms?

Pancreatic cancer is aggressive and often fatal, with late detection and nonspecific symptoms. Earlier detection supports better outcomes, making timely diagnosis critical.

How does the metabolic state of the ketogenic regimen relate to tumor biology?

The ketogenic regimen induces ketogenesis and increases ketone bodies while keeping insulin and glucose levels low. This metabolic state may affect the tumor microenvironment.

What does the review aim to determine about ketogenic diet and β-hydroxybutyrate in pancreatic tumors?

It seeks to clarify the diagnostic value and accuracy of ketone bodies across pancreatic tumor types and explore potential anti-cancer effects of the ketogenic diet alone or combined with chemotherapy, including adjuvant use.

Sep 21, 2026

Upload by Quinn