No. I and saying that these treatments often have horrific side effects so it’s no surprise people start liking at other things. I personally would probably do a juice fast or similar and chemo.
As the sibling commenter said, cancer loves sugar indeed!
Better do a "regular" fast instead -- regular meaning just water, but also meaning often.
Autophagy (the [sub-]cellular janitor) kicks in after 24h* fasting and recycles and repairs old and damaged cells.
And better to do it to maintain / optimize health now. Why wait?
* I've heard plenty of benefits fasting 24-48h, but going longer than that I don't think justifies the risk.
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To a lesser degree you can get the same benefits with fasting's little brother, Time Restricted Eating (these days called Intermittent Fasting) where you eat only during an 8 hour window.
Less autophagy but you will get some lowered inflammation which is great too (inflammation found to cause many mental as well as physical illnesses).
I'm going go assume you're not providing medical advice to cancer patients to fast during chemo. That would be... insane. If you have cancer, talk to your oncology team including doc, nurses and nutritionist that they will provide.
However... as a stage 4 survivor who fucked up my cancer with 18 weeks of chemo, lots of healthy eating, exercise and an amazing support system....
I currently practice intermittent fasting in a 16/8 cycle. I only drink black coffee and water during a fast 8pm to noon. I've found it has improved my energy levels (which were already awesome) and mental acuity. And consequently my productivity and appetite to take on more work.
So yeah, post chemo I'm a fan. But I only tried this years later and after my body had healed up.
Yeah, I was suggesting to GP that (1) better to prevent cancer than to treat it, and (2) better use fasting than fructose!
With that said,
Conclusion: STF during chemotherapy is well tolerated and appears to improve QOL and fatigue during chemotherapy. Larger studies should prove the effect of STF as an adjunct to chemotherapy.
There were no serious adverse effects.
Fasting started 36 h before and ended 24 h after chemotherapy (60 h-fasting period).
Source: The effects of short-term fasting on quality of life and tolerance to chemotherapy in patients with breast and ovarian cancer: a randomized cross-over pilot study.
A juice fast on chemo would kill you. It would throw your electrolytes out of whack and starve your body of protein. The lack of calories would leave you too weak to complete treatment. And cancer loves sugar. So you'd be feeding your tumors while starving your body of what it needs.
