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In those mouse livers, tumors grew faster once ammonia started building up instead of being cleared.<\/p>\n
Following that trail, Wei-Xing Zong at Rutgers University<\/a> showed that failed waste handling in liver cells lay at the center of the effect.<\/p>\n Rather than being neutralized and removed, the excess ammonia was diverted into compounds that cancer cells use to keep multiplying.<\/p>\n That link does not make low protein a universal answer, but it makes liver function the key distinction the rest of the story must explain.<\/p>\n Why ammonia matters<\/p>\n When healthy livers break down protein, they usually turn ammonia<\/a> into urea, which the body can safely remove.<\/p>\n That cleanup route, the urea cycle \u2013 a pathway that makes ammonia safer \u2013 failed in the cancer-prone livers that the team studied.<\/p>\n As the system weakened, ammonia rose in blood and liver tissue, giving tumor cells more nitrogen to work with.<\/p>\n Extra nitrogen can then help cancer cells copy DNA and keep dividing, which turns waste control into a growth issue.<\/p>\n A dangerous backlog<\/p>\n National Cancer Institute Cancer Stat Facts<\/a> put 2025 U.S. liver cancer cases at 42,240 and deaths at 30,090.<\/p>\n Another number is just as stark, because five-year survival for liver and intrahepatic bile duct cancer is 22 percent.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, fatty liver disease<\/a> affects about one in four adults and can scar the liver over time.<\/p>\n Damage from fatty liver disease, hepatitis, or heavy alcohol use helps explain why a diet strategy could matter widely.<\/p>\n How tumors use it<\/p>\n Once ammonia built up, the researchers found that liver tumors redirected it into small molecules used to build DNA and RNA.<\/p>\n Those supplies let fast-growing cells make new genetic material, which is one of the most expensive jobs in cell<\/a> division.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ammonia goes into amino acids and nucleotides, both of which tumor cells depend on for growth,\u201d said Zong, describing what happens inside the tumor.<\/p>\n That finding narrowed the story from general liver failure to a specific growth supply line that diet might disrupt.<\/p>\n Diet and tumor growth<\/p>\n To cut the waste at its source, the team lowered the protein content in food given to tumor-prone mice.<\/p>\n Less protein meant less nitrogen entering the liver, which reduced the ammonia produced during metabolism.<\/p>\n In the mouse study<\/a>, that simple change slowed tumor growth and markedly extended survival in two liver cancer models.<\/p>\n Because the benefit appeared in more than one model, the diet looked more like a real biological effect.<\/p>\n Not a prescription<\/p>\n Cancer care often pushes patients toward extra protein to protect muscle, strength, and recovery during treatment.<\/p>\n National Cancer Institute guidance<\/a> notes that extra protein and calories can help people keep strength during treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cReducing the protein consumption may be the easiest way to get ammonia levels down,\u201d said Zong.<\/p>\n That advice still depends on liver function, because cutting protein too far can worsen weakness and malnutrition.<\/p>\n Breaking the cleanup<\/p>\n The team also knocked out several waste-clearing enzymes one by one, asking whether the cleanup failure itself drives cancer.<\/p>\n Each broken enzyme raised ammonia, enlarged tumor burden, and shortened life span in mice that otherwise handled it better.<\/p>\n That result helped separate cause from coincidence, because the tumors worsened after the waste system was damaged on purpose.<\/p>\n It also suggested the danger did not belong to one single gene, but to the broader loss of ammonia control.<\/p>\n Who faces the real risk<\/p>\n For people with healthy livers, high protein intake usually does not create the same danger. <\/p>\n A working liver quickly converts ammonia into urea, then the kidneys remove that waste in urine.<\/p>\n Zong said people with liver disease or damage may need lower protein intake because their livers may not clear the waste.<\/p>\n That warning points most directly to people with liver cancer, hepatitis, fatty liver<\/a> disease, or severe scarring.<\/p>\n Inside the tumor response<\/p>\n Low-protein feeding did more than lower ammonia, it also reduced cell division, scar-forming activity, and growth signals inside tumors.<\/p>\n Those changes fit the idea that limiting nitrogen slows the cellular processes tumors need for constant expansion.<\/p>\n Even so, the work was done in mice, and mouse<\/a> diets do not settle what any patient should eat.<\/p>\n Human trials would need to show who can safely benefit, how much protein to cut, and for how long.<\/p>\n Rethinking liver cancer<\/p>\n The study turns liver cancer partly into a waste-management problem, where damaged tissue transforms leftover nitrogen into fuel for growth.<\/p>\n That insight points toward diets, drugs, or probiotics that lower ammonia, but it also demands careful trials before patients make dietary changes.<\/p>\n The study is published in Science Advances<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read?\u00a0Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on\u00a0EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by\u00a0Eric Ralls<\/a>\u00a0and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers have found that cutting dietary protein slows liver tumor growth in mice whose damaged livers cannot 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