Abstract
In the U.S., cancer is the second most common cause of death overall (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm) and the first in large subsets of the population; any interventions which delay or prevent cancer offer a dramatic extension of healthspan and lifespan, along with a reduction in suffering and disability and decreased health care costs. Calorie restriction (CR), initially studied as restriction of all nutrients and micronutrients (and thus known initially as “dietary restriction”), has been known since the early 1900s to delay or prevent cancer. Early efforts to understand the interaction of calories and carcinogenesis were hindered by the technology of the day, but recent advances in molecular genetics have allowed us to begin making progress that was hitherto impossible. This chapter explores some of the emerging mechanisms behind CR’s anticancer effects and discusses the relevance of CR strategies to human health.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported entirely by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging, NIH.
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Minor, R.K., Anson, R.M., de Cabo, R. (2010). Calorie Restriction and Cancer: An Update. In: Everitt, A., Rattan, S., le Couteur, D., de Cabo, R. (eds) Calorie Restriction, Aging and Longevity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8556-6_17
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