A Pilot Study of Ketogenic Diet and Metformin in Glioblastoma: Feasibility and Metabolic Imaging

NCT04691960 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: PHASE2 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 18

Last updated 2025-12-19

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

This clinical trial is for men and women with high-grade gliomas. Glucose (sugar) is thought to be a contributor to tumor growth. The ketogenic diet (a high fat, low carbohydrate diet) and metformin (a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes) are both known to lower blood glucose levels. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the tolerability of a ketogenic diet in conjunction with metformin and whether maintaining and the diet with metformin will have any effect on participants. Participants will prepare their own meals with the help of a nutritionist. Participants will continue on treatment as long as they are responding to therapy and not experiencing unacceptable side effects

Conditions

Interventions

OTHER

Ketogenic Diet

Ketogenic diet is high-fat, low carbohydrate diet. Ketogenic diet will be maintained on a continuous basis. The diet will begin at an approximately 3:1 fat to carbohydrate + protein ratio for 5 days. If the patient does not show urine ketosis (1.5 mmol/L or 27.0 mg/dL), the ketosis diet will be advanced to approximately 4:1 ratio for 5 days. If the patient still does not attain ketosis a 24 hour fast will be done to promote ketosis. The diet will encourage at least 30 ml per day of Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCT) oil to enhance ketosis.

DRUG

Metformin

Metformin will be administered as a single 850 mg dose P.O. at Week 8, then titrated up to 850 mg P.O. BID at Week 10, and then 850 mg T.I.D. at Week 12, as tolerated.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Weill Medical College of Cornell University

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Howard Fine, MD · Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2016-08-31
Primary Completion
2026-06-30
Completion
2026-06-30
FDA Device
Yes

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04691960 on ClinicalTrials.gov