No control group, and n=14. This study says nothing.
It certainly doesn't say that intermittent fasting will cure/prevent cancer.
How many research groups tried this with a similar N=14 size group but got statistically insignificant results and thus were not able to publish results?
Thanks to p-hacking, I would expect most small studies to get statistically significant results. Though that doesn't settle the more important question of whether they manage to get published.
Now, that justifies why they were interested in studying this, since it's very similar to Ramadan, but it also could show a bit of a bias in hoping to find positive results.
I'd like to see further evidence before I change my IF routine to be from dawn to sunset and also limit drinking intake personally.
But why would this suddenly happen?
There's some physiology here to be uncovered. That hardly is 'nothing'.
Is it calories? Is it fasting? Is it nutrient timing?
You can't find out which from "no control", but there's definitely a physiological effect being seen, correct?
As you pointed out, without a control group, you cannot claim that any change in your measurements are due to anything. The fact that the researchers do attribute it to fasting is just bad science and makes me doubt the rest of their findings.
Being a bit more realistic is the hawthorne effect, which can be easy to test with follow up experiments.
My biggest takeaway isn't to do IF or cut calories, but rather it seems some phenomena was found. If you asked me if diet, fasting, etc... Would cute cancer, I'd have said NO! but this study has changed that answer to "I don't know".
I suggest that is a huge difference and benefit.