Fighting Cancer with Food
Why we invested in Faeth Therapeutics
Have you ever heard stories of someone convinced they or a loved one cured cancer with a juice cleanse or fad diet? We used to think that was nonsense, and while we wouldn’t recommend that regimen per se, it turns out those folks may be directionally on to something.
Until recently, cancer was thought of as a genetic disease — mutations in the genome or changes in the epigenome lead to aberrant expression of certain cells and form tumors. However, newer research shows that while genetic and environmental changes may initiate tumors, metabolic interactions allow the disease to proliferate. This is because cancer cells rewire their metabolic processes to exceed normal bioenergetic restrictions to fuel their continuous and rapid growth. Cancer cells have been shown to exploit consumption of glucose and glutamine, heavily rely on inefficient glycolysis (see Warburg Effect) for energy production, and secrete metabolic compounds that help tumors evade the host immune system. Pioneering work by leading cancer researcher Lew Cantley has even identified a specific metabolic pathway PI3K involved in cancer proliferation. Given that this fundamental shift in thinking on cancer biology happened in the last decade, few available treatments acknowledge the metabolic intricacies of cancer.
Current treatments for cancer are limited in scope and are often unidimensional. There are 1000+ known cancer-associated genes in humans and since it typically takes two or more mutations for genes to become tumor-producing, there are well over a million cancer genotypes we are trying to find treatments for. Combined with difficult-to-measure epigenetic landscapes influencing tumor production and the fact that each gene has thousands of potential variants, the genetic basis for cancer is unfathomably complex. Put another way, it is near impossible that one, or even a handful, of miracle drugs will ever “cure” cancer single-handedly. Unable to provide other options, we turn to the four established “pillars” of oncology — surgery, small molecules (e.g. targeted therapies, chemotherapy), radiation, and more recently biologics (e.g. immunotherapy, antibodies) — to treat cancer fully aware that these interventions aren’t addressing the full complexity of the disease.
Faeth Therapeutics (Welsh for nutrition, pronounced “fighth”) is pioneering a fifth pillar of oncology — or what might be better described as its foundation. Born from the research of three separate teams of world-renowned scientists, Faeth is built on the discovery that we can engineer our metabolism to beat cancer through nutrition. A unique promise, Faeth’s co-founders — who include Drs. Lew Cantley, Karen Vousden, and Sid Mukherjee — have discovered that pairing precise nutrition with an anti-cancer agent can significantly improve the effectiveness of standalone therapy. Rather than founding separate companies, the three groups were coaxed together by our co-investor Vinod Khosla, who then tapped former Virta Health CFO Anand Parikh as CEO to tie these discoveries together in a new startup. When our good friends at KdT Ventures put us in touch with Anand, we knew we had to be involved.
Diet as a point of intervention dates back to ancient civilizations. From traditional Eastern medicine to the rise of dietetics, the link between what we eat and our health is not a point of contention. However, medicine as we know it has a penchant for third party interventions, namely high-priced drugs. While some therapeutics aim to bind targets that disrupt cancer’s quest for metabolic exploitation, they often only solve part of the problem, missing similar pathways or molecules that allow cancer an opportunity to evolve and continue exploiting cell biology. Taking a step back and controlling diet allows for a far wider-reaching effect as all pathways, including the hidden ones, are starved of fundamental inputs. By precisely controlling certain nutrients, it turns out we may be able to starve the cancer without starving the patient.
Faeth’s intervention resides on three main pillars:
- Precision nutrition: specific dietary regimen that Faeth chefs implement through prepped meals
- Therapeutic intervention: matched anti-cancer agent whose effect is enhanced by a corresponding diet (either developed by Faeth or a pharma partner)
- Software integration: digital health integration to patient care for real-time treatment information, patient adoption, compliance, and support
Given cancer’s unique biology there isn’t only one diet/therapeutic combo for each indication (i.e. type of cancer). To uncover new relationships between cancer, metabolism, and ultimately within individual patients, Faeth is using machine learning to map the metabolic genome and uncover relevant subnetworks that up-regulate gene expression in tumors. With this information, Faeth is able to screen a variety of cell lines in tandem with anti-cancer agents (therapeutics) and diet regimens (depleted/enriched nutrients) to design new personalized treatments. Precision oncology just gained a whole new dimension.
The team is currently de-risking a few nutritional regimens in clinical trials for pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, and endometrial cancers, with even more therapies in preclinical studies addressing other cancers. The app may also be an opportunity to provide more broad-based oncology coaching via telehealth platform.
Otto Warburg knew cancer and nutrition were closely linked some hundred years ago when he discovered what we now know as the Warburg effect, a hallmark of cancer and partial explanation for cancer metastasis. However, it is only now that we have the tools needed to understand the link between nutrition and cancer and, more importantly, do something about it. Faeth is building a whole new pillar of cancer therapeutics and with it promise for millions of patients. We couldn’t be more proud to partner with Anand, Khosla Ventures, KdT Ventures, Digitalis, Future Ventures, and others in Faeth’s $20M Seed round as we work towards unlocking metabolic health in the fight against cancer.
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer and is thinking about nutrition’s role, visit https://www.faeththerapeutics.com/patients to assess eligibility in ongoing trials and find out when the company expands clinical studies for new indications. They’re also hiring!
