Cryptic.

Wake up from your rad bio nightmares with this real-life rad bio study. A handful of mice underwent feast or famine for 24 hours prior to whole abdomen radiation GOG 122 style but to 11.5 Gy all in a single fraction—that’s the first reason the authors’ human model didn’t get past the IRB. Second reason is that intestines were then harvested at various time points to assess crypt damage ala the Book of Hall. As hypothesized, there was a protective effect to fasting. Ok, protective is an understatement. Among the group that ate at will, all died between 6-7 days; among the group that fasted, all resumed baseline weight and activity around day 14 and were still living at day 30. Interestingly, the intestinal samples from the fasting group demonstrated improved stem cell regeneration. What’s more, treated orthotopic pancreatic tumors displayed increased γ-H2AX-staining—which, as all PGY-5s know for the next 3 days, denotes DNA double-strand breaks—indicating enhanced radiosensitization. TBL: Fasting may be the hidden linchpin in achieving elusive safe dose-escalations for hepatobiliary tumors. | de la Cruz Bonilla, Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 2019