Some obesogenic diets improved immunotherapy in mice — SkimNews
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- McGill University researchers tested 12 different diets in mice and found that some diets associated with obesity improved responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors, including after relatively short consumption periods.
- Daniela Quail said that, even with the right gut-bacterial composition, the foods used to nourish those populations can determine whether the mice respond to immunotherapy.
- Lysanne Desharnais co-wrote the 2026 Nature paper with Quail and collaborators; it appeared in volume 657, issue 8131, at page 505 as “Diet–microbiome synergy underlies obesity-associated immunotherapy efficacy.”
- Nature paper frames the “obesity paradox” around diet–microbiome synergy: prior studies found higher-BMI cancer patients sometimes respond favorably to checkpoint inhibitors, while the mouse results point away from excess weight as the primary explanation.
- McGill University cautioned that the mouse results do not demonstrate that obesity-promoting diets would improve human cancer treatment and should not prompt patients to adopt them for immunotherapy.
Why it matters: For cancer researchers, the result shifts the focus of the obesity paradox from excess body weight alone to the 12 tested diets and their interaction with gut bacteria, which is the mechanism the study examined. For patients, the mouse finding is not a dietary prescription: the authors say excess weight carries health risks and human benefit was not demonstrated.
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