Objective To summarize the various types of ketogenic diet and its research progress in cancer treatment. Methods Related articles were retrieved by searching the pubmed database with the key words “ketogenic diet” and “cancer”. Results The malignant transformed cells were more dependent on glucose supply than their normal counterparts. Ketogenic diet, low in carbohydrate, exerts anti-neoplastic character by inhibiting the tumor-related signal transduction. Conclusions Ketogenic diet, alone or combined with chemo-radio-therapy could hammer tumor growth in rodents, whereas its clinical application warrants large-scale prospective clinical trials