Genomic-driven nutritional interventions for radiotherapy-resistant rectal cancer patient

Radiotherapy response of rectal cancer patients is dependent on a myriad of molecular mechanisms including response to stress, cell death, and cell metabolism. Modulation of lipid metabolism emerges as a unique strategy to improve radiotherapy outcomes due to its accessibility by bioactive molecules within foods. Even though a few radioresponse modulators have been identified using experimental techniques, trying to experimentally identify all potential modulators is intractable. Here we introduce a machine learning (ML) approach to interrogate the space of bioactive molecules within food for potential modulators of radiotherapy response and provide phytochemically-enriched recipes that encapsulate the benefits of discovered radiotherapy modulators. Potential radioresponse modulators were identified using a genomic-driven network ML approach, metric learning and domain knowledge. Then, recipes from the Recipe1M database were optimized to provide ingredient substitutions maximizing the number of predicted modulators whilst preserving the recipe’s culinary attributes. This work provides a pipeline for the design of genomic-driven nutritional interventions to improve outcomes of rectal cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.