A diet low in serine, an amino acid in meat, fish and eggs — taken in tandem with drugs to stop its production — may provide a new approach to cancer treatment.

As they grow more aggressively, cancer cells are more dependent on serine — a protein building block — than their healthy peers, suggesting a potential weakness.

Previous studies in mice and human cells indicated that lowering serine levels can slow tumor growth — but many cancer cells are capable of making their own.

In fact, the 'KRAS mutation' that allows tumors to produce serine is found in 30 per cent of all patients, and is common in hard-to-treat bowel and pancreatic cancers.

However, UK researchers have shown that, in mice containing a graft of human bowel cancer cells, tumor growth is slowed by low-serine diets and the drug PH755.

They reported that, encouragingly, PH755 induced few side effects in the animals — and the dual-pronged approach may work against a variety of cancers.

However, further work on human cells and safety tests will be needed before this approach to treatment can be recommended for cancer patients.

Prior to testing the dual approach in the mouse models, the team had seen promising results in both cell cultures in the lab and in so-called organoids — 3D tumor models which are designed to mimic the complexity of real organs.

'The idea of being able to develop dietary interventions, based on the understanding of mechanisms behind how changes in nutrients affect tumors, has the potential to unlock a powerful way to treat cancer,' said cancer biologist Karen Vousden.

'In the future this could provide a basis for developing a precision medicine approach to diet as a cancer therapy, much as we do with targeted drugs,' the Cancer Research UK chief scientist added.

'Personalizing each individual's diet to target the nutritional demands of cancer could, alongside other therapies, give people the best opportunity to respond to treatment.'

'While it’s encouraging to see the potential of targeting cancer’s nutritional demands to help treat the disease, it’s important to remember that this is early research in mice and cells,' said Cancer Research UK's head information nurse Martin Ledwick.

'People with cancer shouldn’t change their diets in light of this,' he cautioned.

'We need to see if this work translates into cancer in humans before testing to see if diet changes are helpful.'

'Understanding the fundamental biology of cancer through studies like this is vital for revealing the true complexity of the disease, and can shed light on new treatment avenues,' said Cancer Research UK chief executive Michelle Mitchell.

'This research has given us a tantalizing glimpse into how we can turn cancer’s dietary dependencies against it, and we look forward to seeing if the approach works in people.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature Communications.