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Common Sugar May Help Ovarian Cancer Spread, Study FindsHealth
Researchers in Philadelphia found that ovarian cancer cells surviving chemotherapy can release fructose, a signal that helps nearby tumour cells break away and spread. The work is still at the laboratory stage, and the researchers stress it does not prove that eating sugar causes cancer to spread in people.
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A common sugar found in fruit, honey and many sweetened drinks may play a surprising part in helping an aggressive form of ovarian cancer spread after treatment, according to new research from the United States.
Scientists at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia found that ovarian cancer cells which survive chemotherapy can release fructose, a natural sugar, into their surroundings. The fructose acts as a chemical signal, prompting nearby tumour cells to break away and move, the first step towards the cancer spreading to other parts of the body.
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The findings, published in the journal Nature Aging, describe a previously unknown way in which cancer cells left behind after treatment can still influence a tumour, even when they have stopped multiplying. The work was led by Aidan Cole, a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Professor Katherine Aird, who co-leads the institute’s programme on the molecular and cellular origins of cancer.
How the sugar signal works
According to the researchers, the surviving cells produce fructose and send it out as a message to their neighbours. That message appears to switch off cholesterol production in the surrounding cancer cells, a change that makes them more likely to detach and travel. The team described fructose as one of the first nutrients shown to act as such a signal between cancer cells.
The experiments also suggested that diet could matter. In laboratory models, high levels of fructose similar to those found in sugary drinks encouraged cancer cells to spread even when no chemotherapy had been given. The researchers said the result raised fresh questions about whether sugary diets, and medicines that affect cholesterol, could influence how the disease develops, questions that remain unanswered for now.
What it does not prove
The researchers were careful to stress the limits of the work. The study was carried out in laboratory models, and the effect has not yet been tested in patients. The findings do not prove that eating fructose causes cancer to spread in people, and doctors are not advising patients to change their diets on the basis of this study alone.
Still, the team believes the discovery could open new paths for treatment. If the fructose signal can be blocked, it may one day be possible to reduce the risk of the cancer returning after chemotherapy. The researchers are now looking into whether the same process plays a part in other cancers that spread within the abdomen, including pancreatic, colon and liver cancers.
Ovarian cancer is often diagnosed late, and it is one of the hardest cancers to treat once it has spread. Any insight into how it returns after treatment is therefore closely watched by doctors and patients alike. For now, the message from the scientists is one of cautious hope: a familiar sugar has revealed an unfamiliar trick, and understanding it may eventually help stop the disease from coming back.
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