The Role of Calorie Restriction in Cancer Prevention, Cancer Treatment, Longevity, and in Reducing Cellular Stress

Cancer is one of the top main illnesses worldwide. The aging of the population and the widespread presence of risk factors including obesity, smoking, and/or bad eating habits are expected to contribute to its further rise. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery continue to be the cornerstones of cancer treatment, despite the gradual replacement or supplementation of these methods by innovative treatments. The American Cancer Society suggests a high-calorie, high-protein diet for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Furthermore, there are no established recommendations for the kind of diet that would significantly reduce cancer rates. However, calorie restriction (CR) and fasting, two common methods of reducing caloric consumption, show a broad variety of positive benefits that may prevent malignancies and boost the effectiveness of cancer treatments. Periodic fasting (PF), fasting-mimicking diets, and restricted food intake without first a decrease in calories have become popular as interventions with the potential to be widely used to prevent and treat cancer, while chronic CR provides both beneficial and detrimental effects and major compliance challenges. In this article, we discuss the impact that calorie restriction has in preventing cancer, aiding in cancer treatment, producing cellular protection and chemotherapy resistance in animal models and early human investigations.