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Constant sugar consumption can lead to cancer
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Recent studies have found a link between glucose consumption and the occurrence of certain types of cancer.
This discovery could be useful not only for cancer prevention, but also for creating new anti-cancer drugs that could block the entry of glucose into cells.
The study was conducted at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Despite the fact that a large number of studies on the causes of oncological diseases are conducted annually in the world, cancer is still considered the main issue in scientific medicine. Five years ago, more than 14 million patients with cancer were recorded in the world, of which more than half died. According to forecasts, in ten years, such indicators may increase more than one and a half times.
Scientists conducted a comparative analysis of 33 types of oncological pathologies, according to the Cancer Genome Atlas. As a result, an interesting pattern was discovered. People suffering from non-small cell lung cancer were diagnosed with a high level of proteins responsible for the entry of glucose into cellular structures.
"Many years ago, scientists voiced the theory that the malignancy of cells may depend on the constant supply of glucose, since cancer cells need a huge amount of energy for normal development and reproduction processes. However, we have discovered that a certain type of cancer, namely non-small cell lung cancer, is especially dependent on the presence of sugar in the blood," say the biological scientists who led the study.
The protein we talked about above can transport molecular glucose into cells so that it can be used as an energy source. The name of this protein is GLUT1.
"The study was almost completed, but it still seemed to us that the metabolic features of non-small cell cancer and adenocarcinoma have much in common. But, in fact, everything turned out to be much more complicated. We conducted experiments using different planes. As a result, we were able to confirm that a tumor such as adenocarcinoma is not so demanding of the presence of glucose. Various malignant processes are differently dependent on the circulation of sugars in the blood, and this information should be used in matters of preventing and treating cancer," the authors of the study say.
In continuation of the experiments, the specialists tried to influence the non-small cell lung cancer tumor with a GLUT1 inhibitor drug, the purpose of which was to disrupt the transport of sugar into the cells. Under the influence of such a drug, the non-small cell lung cancer tumor really did "shrink" and decrease in size in a short time. However, such treatment had no effect on adenocarcinoma.
The scientists' immediate plans include creating new drugs for treating cancer processes, at least non-small cell lung cancer. Incidentally, such work is already underway.
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