Nutritional pharmacology in the treatment of neoplastic disease

The altered energy metabolism and substrate requirements of tumour cells can provide a target for selective antineoplastic therapy. The supply of substrates for tumour energy metabolism can be reduced by dietary manipulation (e.g. ketogenic diet) or by pharmacological means at the cellular level (e.g. inhibitors of glycolysis or oxidative phosphorylation). Both these approaches are examined with a view to the development of selective and therefore non-toxic methods of controlling tumour growth in vivo.