Researchers show how to stop sugar feeding cancer
Certain cancers seem to love sugar and researchers at Duke Medical Institute seem to have developed a way to predict which; and a potential way to block it (1).
In a study(1) published in Cell Metabolism (September 14), Assistant Professor Jason Locasale and a team of scientists showed that in the Warburg Effect - where cancer cells break down sugar using fermentation only – an enzyme GAPDH specifically controls the rate of glucose burning. They are now working on a test that might use GAPDH levels to test to what degree a person’s cancer is glucose-dependent.
They then found that a molecule made by a sugar-consuming fungus to stop bacterial attack could stop the glucose consumption in cancer cells by stopping the GAPDH effect but leaving healthy cells alone.
Chris Woollams, former Oxford University Biochemist and founder of CANCERactive said, “
Anyone who has seen me speak knows well my views on common sugars and the heightened risk of cancer – if you have a brain tumour or a colorectal cancer, it would seem a molecule of sugar is your enemy, but that may be less true for others like hormonally driven cancers such as breast, prostate and ovarian, as I tell people frequently. Even within cancers there is evidence that no two people are the same. One person can find sugar makes their cancer aggressive, while another with the same cancer may see less of an effect.
Go to: Sugar can make a cancer more aggressive by turning on the ’ras’ gene
Here, in this work by Duke, we not only have a way of measuring the impact sugar can have on a cancer, we have the potential to stop it.
Frankly, the shere volume of research makes those UK cancer charities holding their cake and coffee mornings look complete idiots, not to mention those hospitals and dieticians who are in denial. They are a danger to cancer patients, just when the doctor is trying to kill off the cancer.
A couple of years ago, when the UK skeptics attacked me for my views, the Times showed the Skeptic charity ’Sense about Science’ had received a donation from Coca Cola. Draw from that what you will."
Go to: 20 links between sugar and cancer
Refs