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15 December 2025 How fasting boosts breast cancer therapy A discovery in mice reveals why fasting enhances a type of breast cancer treatment — a hormone-signalling pathway and gene-expression changes have key roles. By Stephen D. Hursting ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3605-2833 0 Stephen D. Hursting Stephen D. Hursting is in the Department of Nutrition and at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
A hallmark of most breast cancers1 is the expression of a hormone receptor called oestrogen receptor-α (ERα). People with this type of cancer typically receive endocrine therapy, involving oestrogen-blocking drugs such as tamoxifen, but the development of resistance to this treatment is a common clinical challenge2. One way to enhance the effectiveness of endocrine therapy and delay the emergence of resistance is through periodic fasting, when, under clinical supervision, people restrict their eating and consume few or no calories for time spans of hours to days on a regular cycle. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect have been hard to determine3. Writing in Nature, Padrão et al.4 now provide some answers regarding the consequences of such fasting.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03809-8
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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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