生酮饮食最早用于脑部疾病的治疗，如脑胶质瘤、癫痫等。近 20 年研究表明机体内慢性炎症反应、高血糖与肿 瘤发展密切相关。运动或限制饮食可降低血糖水平、升高血酮浓度，同时降低炎症反应，而高脂、低糖的生酮饮食方式可 模拟运动或禁食产生的生理状态，这使生酮饮食用于治疗代谢性疾病成为可能。随着肿瘤代谢与肿瘤营养相关研究的不断 深入，越来越多的证据表明细胞代谢在肿瘤的发生、发展中起着非常重要的作用，加上多种新的实验手段的使用以及信号 通路研究的突破，许多研究者认为肿瘤代谢改变或许是肿瘤治疗的新靶点，因而生酮饮食用于肿瘤治疗也逐渐成为研究者 近年来关注的焦点。肿瘤细胞依赖葡萄糖作为主要能量来源，而肿瘤患者本身需要摄入更多脂肪和蛋白质，据此，提供足 够脂肪和蛋白质、限制葡萄糖的生酮饮食理论上可以治疗肿瘤。生酮饮食利用肿瘤细胞线粒体缺陷、葡萄糖依赖等特征， 通过抑制炎症、加强免疫反应、提高抗氧化应激能力、调节相关信号通路蛋白表达等多种途径抑制肿瘤生长，改善患者生 活质量，延长患者生存期，同时还能够增强放化疗的敏感性。这些机制为生酮饮食用于肿瘤治疗提供理论基础，但尚有部 分机制未完全明确，仍需进一步基础研究及临床试验证实。

KD was firstly applied to treat cerebral diseases, such as cerebral glioma, epilepsy and so on. Researches of last two decades found that chronic inflammation, elevated blood glucose were closely related to tumor development. Regular exercise and fasting could lower blood glucose, increase the concentration of plasma ketone bodies and reduce the inflammatory response. KD, characterized as high fat and very low carbohydrate could evoke a physiological state similar to exercise or fasting. These promote its possible use in treatment of metabolic diseases. With the intensive studies of metabolism and nutrition of cancer, there were growing evidences indicating cellular metabolism plays a very important role in the occurrence and development of tumor. With the application of various experimental methods and the breakthrough of signaling pathways, researchers believed altered metabolism of cancer cells is a potential target for therapeutic intervention. Thus, the anti-tumor effect of KD had become a research focus in recent years. Cancer cells depend on glucose as main energy, and the patients themselves need to consume more fat and protein, accordingly, the ketogenic theory providing enough protein and fat, limiting glucose can treat cancer theoretically. The KD making use of the characteristics of mitochondrial defects and glucose dependent of tumor cells, through suppressing inflammation, enhancing immune response, improving the ability of antioxidant stress, regulating related signal pathway, etc., inhibits tumor growth, improves patients’ quality of life, prolonges the survival of patients and enhances the sensitivity to radiotherapy and chemotherapy. These mechanisms provided a theoretical basis for the application of KD in cancer treatment. However, some mechanisms were not fully elucidated, further basic research and clinical trials is needed to confirm.