Back in 2013, scientists from University College London (UCL) in the U.K. developed a new technique for detecting cancer by imaging the consumption of sugar with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At the time, the UCL press release said, “The breakthrough could provide a safer and simpler alternative to standard radioactive techniques and enable radiologists to image tumours in greater detail”.
First, they sensitized their scanners to show glucose uptake. This allowed the cancer tumours to appear as ‘bright images on MRI scans’.
Now, for those of you working in hospitals, or for cancer charities in denial that sugar is linked to cancer, we would like you to read the following words VERY carefully.
The Press release from UCL stated that … “The new technique, called ‘glucose chemical exchange saturation transfer’ (glucoCEST), is based on the fact that tumours consume much more glucose (a type of sugar) than normal, healthy tissues in order to sustain their growth.”
First author Dr. Simon Walker-Samuel, from the UCL Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI) said: “GlucoCEST uses radio waves to magnetically label glucose in the body. This can then be detected in tumours using conventional MRI techniques. The method uses an injection of normal sugar and could offer a cheap, safe alternative to existing methods for detecting tumours, which require the injection of radioactive material.”
Ed: to clarify: MRI scans are usually used after an injection of sugar which is bound to radioactive material and it is the latter that lights up the MRI. Here, the scientists are saying that sugar alone could light up an MRI because tumours consume much more sugar than healthy cells.
Professor Mark Lythgoe, Director of CABI and a senior author on the study, said, “In principle, we can detect cancer using the same sugar content found in half a standard sized chocolate bar. Our research reveals a useful and cost-effective method for imaging cancers using MRI – a standard imaging technology available in many large hospitals.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and a founder of CANCERactive said, “Please, let’s stop the nonsense about sugar not feeding cancer cells and tumours. Cancer cells have 14 times the number of insulin receptor sites found on healthy cells - they need to scoop up as much glucose as they possibly can.
Yet nurses and doctors in hospitals are feeding cancer patients ice cream, lumps of cake, chocolate biscuits and milky, sugary tea when the research has been clear for a decade. Here you have two top scientists at one of Britain’s top cancer centres in a Press Release authorized by that Cancer Centre, telling you that ‘half a bar of chocolate will light up a cancer – because cancers love sugar’.
When I was attacked by skeptics for my views on sugar in 2012, it was subsequently shown in an investigation by the Times that Coca Cola had sponsored the leading skeptic charity throwing away all credibility for the skeptics. Unfortunately, these links with Big Sugar are all pervasive in our society and well-meaning nurses and helpers in hospitals are sucked in and just fall for it.
It is time the big charities came clean and skeptics and their fake news were shut down. Cancers depend on glycolysis to grow. It’s school biology for 15 year old children!”