Cancer tumors consume fructose with appetite

Because of the rapid increase in the consumption of fructose in the diet in recent decades, researchers at the University of Washington wanted to learn more about how fructose affects tumor growth.

The scientists began their study by feeding animals with tumors fructose-rich foods and then measuring how fast their tumors grew. The researchers found that fructose supplementation promoted tumor growth while not changing body weight, fasting glucose and insulin levels.

“We were surprised to see that fructose had quite a strong effect. In some cases, the rate of tumor growth was accelerated by a factor of two or even more,” the researchers said. “Clearly, consuming large amounts of fructose was very bad for the progression of these tumors.”

But the next step in their experiments initially stumped them. When they tried to replicate a version of this experiment by feeding fructose to cancer cells isolated in a laboratory, they didn’t react in any way.  In most cases, they grew almost as slowly as if they had been given no sugar at all.

So the researchers went back to study changes in small molecules in the blood of animals fed a high-fructose diet. Using metabolomics techniques, they found increased levels of various types of lipids, including lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs). Additional in vitro assays showed that liver cells that had been fed fructose secreted LPCs.

Interestingly, the cancer cells themselves could not easily utilize fructose as a nutrient because they did not possess the right biochemical mechanism.

So they converted fructose into LPCs, which they used to feed the tumors.

The defining characteristic of cancer is the uncontrolled proliferation of malignant cells. Each time a cell divides, it must reproduce its contents, including cell membranes. This requires a significant amount of lipids. Although lipids can be synthesized from scratch, it is much easier for cancer cells to simply take lipids from the environment.

Over the past few years, it has become clear that many cancer cells prefer not to produce lipids but simply appropriate them. The difficulty is that most lipids are insoluble in the blood and require rather complex transport mechanisms. LPCs are unique. They may provide the most efficient and effective way to support tumor growth.

Fructose withdrawal

Interestingly, during the same period of time that human fructose consumption increased dramatically, certain types of cancers became increasingly common among people under the age of 50. This raised the question of whether these trends were related.

It was decided to investigate how fructose consumption affects cancer incidence. The conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that if you suffer from cancer, you should probably consider giving up fructose. “Unfortunately, this is easier said than done,” the doctors say.

The study authors believe that, in addition to dietary intervention, this study may help develop a way to prevent fructose-induced tumor growth therapeutically, with drugs.

The study authors continue to work with clinical partners at WashU Medicine to explore the feasibility of clinical trials related to fructose in the diet.

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Published: 10.12.2024

Updated: 10.12.2024

Medical author, Medical editor:

Stepan Yuk

Medical expert:

PhD. Olexandr Voznyak