The Glucose Ketone Index predicts overall survival and metastasis of mouse tumor cells to visceral organs and brain

Background: Metastasis is largely refractory to most standard cancer therapies and is the leading cause of cancer death, especially after the tumor cells metastasize to the brain. Glucose fermentation under either anaerobic or aerobic conditions (Warburg Effect) is a common metabolic hallmark of most metastatic tumor cells. The high-fat low carbohydrate ketogenic diet is a metabolic therapy that lowers blood glucose levels while elevating levels of the non-fermentable ketone bodies, acetoacetate and D-β-hydroxybutyrate (β-OHB). The Glucose Ketone Index (GKI) was developed as a quantitative blood biomarker for predicting the efficacy of anti-cancer metabolic therapies.