A new study has shown that besides being responsible for cavities and a thicker waistline, sugar, especially fructose, could also lead to an increased risk of breast tumors and breast cancer. A research paper published in the journal Cancer Research documents the link between high sugar intake and the growth of tumors and cancer. The paper also describes a possible mechanism that might explain how consuming sugar triggers the growth of cancer, according to West Texas News.
The study, using mice, found that refined sugar and fructose, in particular, had an effect on a metabolic process that helps enable cancer cells to spread. While humans need the type of sugar called glucose to help their bodies generate energy, refined sugars and fructose affect the body differently, in an adverse manner, according to the research paper, reports cdanews.com.
The study bolsters previous research, which suggests that at least two-thirds of all cancer cases are preventable, in that they are caused by lifestyle choices like smoking or otherwise using tobacco, lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet.
One of the co-authors, Lorenzo Cohen of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, says, “A lot of patients are told it doesn’t matter what you eat after you are diagnosed with cancer. This preliminary animal research suggests that it does matter.”
“We determined that it was specifically fructose, in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, ubiquitous within our food system, which was responsible for facilitating lung metastasis and 12-HETE production in breast tumors,” Cohen said.
According to him, the majority of cancer patients do not die from the primary tumor they develop, but from “metastatic disease.” The incidence of metastatic disease and how rapidly it spreads, according to the results of the study, is linked to the amount of refined sugar like sucrose and fructose that people consume. The study’s data suggested that sucrose and fructose “induced 12-LOX and 12-HETE production in breast tumor cells, causing tumors to grow.”
Another co-author of the study, Dr. Peiying Yang noted, according to Medical Daily, that there have been no previous studies which have investigated the direct effect of sugar consumption on the development of breast cancer through animal models.
