Fasting renders immunotherapy effective against low-immunogenic breast cancer while reducing side effects

Abstract

Immunotherapy is improving the prognosis and survival of cancer patients, but despite encouraging out-comes in different cancers, the majority of tumors are resistant to it, and the immunotherapy combinations are often accompanied by severe side effects. Here, we show that a periodic fasting-mimicking diet (FMD) can act on the tumor microenvironment and increase the efficacy of immunotherapy (anti-PD-L1 and anti-OX40) against the poorly immunogenic triple-negative breast tumors (TNBCs) by expanding early exhausted effector T cells, switching the cancer metabolism from glycolytic to respiratory, and reducing collagen depo-sition. Furthermore, FMD reduces the occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) by preventing the hyperactivation of the immune response. These results indicate that FMD cycles have the potential to enhance the efficacy of anti-cancer immune responses, expand the portion of tumors sensitive to immuno-therapy, and reduce its side effects.