Breakthrough Finding: How Sugar Fuels Cancer Growth

NewsMax ^ | Thursday, 19 Oct 2017 10:18 AM | Nick Tate  

[BenLurkin]

The findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications, help unravel what has been a scientific mystery to medical researchers – precisely how sugar makes tumors grow faster. The new understanding could help lead to new ways to combat cancer, through diet and other modifications of sugar intake.

The research team – led by Johan Thevelein, Wim Versées and Veerle Janssens – have been studying sugar’s link to cancer for nearly a decade. They, and other scientists, have determined tumor cells grow by rapidly breaking down glucose (a form of sugar) – a phenomenon known as the “Warburg effect.”

But the new research determined precisely how. The Belgian team found that yeast with high levels of glucose overstimulate proteins often found mutated inside human tumors, making cells grow faster.

"[The study] is able to explain the correlation between the strength of the Warburg effect and tumor aggressiveness," Thevelein, from KU Leuven in Belgium, said in a release.

[Husker24]

Cancer tumors burn calories faster than normal cells, it makes sense that it would go for the low hanging fruit first.

[trisham]

I’ve avoided sugar for years because of what I’ve read regarding sugar’s effect on the immune system.

[Lera]

[[Here come the soda tax/sugar banners...]]

You don’t want to ban soda and candy .
You don’t want it put in everything and they put it in almost everything so think you are buying good food and you are getting junk instead .

All you have to do is take a look around to see how huge Americans are getting and how many are suffering from metabolic disease because the people that worked for the drug companies now run the FDA . You want to get diabetes or cancer or ruin your endocrine system so you have to be on drugs the rest of your life just eat like they tell you.

[BlueYonder]

He eats only raw chicken (dark meat only because it’s fattier, bones and all), coconut oil, olive oil, occasional other fats and some veggie scraps. There is a study on-line showing a ketogenic diet’s dramatic efficacy against mast cell tumors so we keep at it.

[Lera]

[[He eats only raw chicken (dark meat only because it’s fattier, bones and all), coconut oil, olive oil, occasional other fats and some veggie scraps. There is a study on-line showing a ketogenic diet’s dramatic efficacy against mast cell tumors so we keep at it.]]

You can add grape seed oil to that too and real butter
(the other fats are worthless and some of them do cause tumors ) Ketogenic is the way to eat and be healthy

[jjotto]

Word For The Day: glycolysis

[BlueYonder]

+1

[Lera]

I know what it means

Your body turns white sugar to fat
Your body turns anything it doesn’t recognize as food into fat
White sugar is not food

[jjotto]

Then, no, you don’t know what it means.

[RedMonqey]

All you have to do is take a look around to see how huge Americans are getting and how many are suffering from metabolic disease

Unless we're talking about preservative and artificial ingredients, I can't lay blame on the food.

We Americans used to "eat like a field hand" because we used to "work like a field hand"

All those hi calorie foods our predecessors consumed sustained them as they built the nation we live in. Now we sit back in our easy chairs after a hard day of tapping keyboards and drinking sugary drinks and STILL eat as if we were slaving away in the tobacco fields.

America is fat because we are lazy. Calories in means calories (need to be burned)burned out

Simple as that.

[Lera]

A spike in energy does not cause healthy cell growth

Americans are among the most fed people on earth and take a good look around you and most people are over weight and nutritionally starved

[markomalley]

This is news?

Understanding the Warburg Effect: The Metabolic Requirements of Cell Proliferation (2009)

Abstract: In contrast to normal differentiated cells, which rely primarily on mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation to generate the energy needed for cellular processes, most cancer cells instead rely on aerobic glycolysis, a phenomenon termed “the Warburg effect.” Aerobic glycolysis is an inefficient way to generate adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), however, and the advantage it confers to cancer cells has been unclear. Here we propose that the metabolism of cancer cells, and indeed all proliferating cells, is adapted to facilitate the uptake and incorporation of nutrients into the biomass (e.g., nucleotides, amino acids, and lipids) needed to produce a new cell. Supporting this idea are recent studies showing that (i) several signaling pathways implicated in cell proliferation also regulate metabolic pathways that incorporate nutrients into biomass; and that (ii) certain cancer-associated mutations enable cancer cells to acquire and metabolize nutrients in a manner conducive to proliferation rather than efficient ATP production. A better understanding of the mechanistic links between cellular metabolism and growth control may ultimately lead to better treatments for human cancer.

Warburg meets non-coding RNAs: the emerging role of ncRNA in regulating the glucose metabolism of cancer cells.

Abstract: Unlike normal differentiated cells, cancer cells primarily rely on glycolysis to generate energy needed for cellular processes even in normoxia conditions. This phenomenon is called aerobic glycolysis or "the Warburg effect." Aerobic glycolysis is inefficient to generate ATP, but the advantages it confers to cancer cells remain to be fully explained. Several oncogenic signaling pathways, interplaying with enzymes and kinases involved in glucose metabolism, participate in the switch from oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) to aerobic glycolysis. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are a family of functional RNA molecules that are not further translated into proteins, which exert regulatatory roles in gene transcription and translation. ncRNAs, especially miRNAs and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), may also have great effect on glucose metabolism by targeting not only glycolysis enzymes directly but also oncogenic signaling pathways indirectly. A better understanding of the Warburg effect and the regulatory role of ncRNAs in cancer glucose metabolism may contribute to the treatment of cancers.

Glucose Addiction in Cancer Therapy: Advances and Drawbacks.

Abstract: While normal differentiated cells primarily use mitochondrial respiration to generate the required energy for cellular processes, most cancer cells rely on glycolysis, even in sufficient oxygen conditions. This phenomenon is known as the "Warburg effect" or aerobic glycolysis and the metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells towards this altered energy metabolism is currently recognized as one of the "hallmarks of cancer". Aerobic glycolysis underlies the rapid growth of tumor cells, with high rates of glucose consumption and lactic acid production, leading to cellular acidosis. Metabolic reprogramming renders cancer cells dependent on specific metabolic enzymes or pathways that could be exploited in cancer therapy. The development of treatments that target tumor glucose metabolism is receiving renewed attention, with several drugs targeting metabolic pathways currently in clinical trials. The search for suitable targets, however, is limited by the high plasticity of the metabolic network that can induce compensatory routes. Deregulated glucose metabolism is a prominent feature associated with resistance to classical chemotherapy or oncogene-targeted therapies, strengthening the clinical potential of combining these therapies with glycolysis inhibitors. The aim of this review is to compare the advances of different therapeutic strategies targeting the glucose "addiction" of tumor cells, highlighting their potential as effective weapons against cancer. We further discuss recent evidence for the involvement of glucose metabolism as a compensatory response to the use of drugs that target different signaling pathways, where the combination with glycolysis inhibitors could prove extraordinarily useful.

The Warburg Effect was originally defined in 1931. You can read the original article here. BTW, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (back when a Nobel actually meant something) for his work.

[GnuThere]

Yes, that sounds excellent! If I had cancer, the ketogenic diet is what I would embrace. (For humans, goodbye frozen custard!)
Best wishes for him.

[suekas]

I knew for a long time, that cancer has about 8 x’s the metabolic rate, as normal cells. So it loves and needs sugar.
So I was shocked to see bowls of sugar candy, at the oncologist’s office. Supposedly because the chemo patient s have sores in their mouths.

[Lera]

It’s not just calories
You are made to eat like a field hand
That’s how you get food with minerals and vitamins
The stuff most people eat today is loaded with sugars that rob you of your minerals .
Calories devoid of vitamins and minerals are worthless to your body .

Spikes in blood sugar cause weight gain

I’m early Gen X and probably eat more calories than you do.
I’m very muscular and trim and I’ve never dieted in my life.
I don’t each junk on a daily basis .
I eat real food and I load my baked potatoes with real butter and I pour olive oil all over my veggies oh and I do eat red meat . I also don’t have to take any medications .

It’s not calories
Food is fuel for your body and it really is garbage in garbage out

Low calorie foods are among the worst foods you can eat .
Your body uses the right fats as fuel .

[TheNext]

Get all sugar from real whole fruit.

[EinNYC]

Stevia’s expensive, but u don’t need much. It’s sweet as hell. Unlike other sugar substitutes, Stevia doesn’t cause an insulin spike. I don’t know so much if you can cook with it and have it come out tasting properly.

No worries. You can't use the little packets of stevia to bake with, as the heat destroys the sweet. However, Truvia (and maybe others) makes a special baking type in both white and brown sugar versions. I have used both and they aren't bad. And I love the 75% less carb than sugar they provide.

[aimhigh]

There was a study decades ago with similar findings. Nothing new. I’ve always wondered if the fasting (due to nausea) that occurs under Chemo is what really affacts cancer.

[spokeshave]

Stevia’s expensive, but u don’t need much. It’s sweet as hell.

You can grow it

85 days from sowing. pack of 50 seeds $5.21.

A wholesome alternative to processed sugar and chemically-derived artificial sweeteners, Stevia ("sugarleaf") is becoming more and more popular among health-conscious individuals. It's 20 to 30 times sweeter than sugar cane, yet is non-caloric and doesn't promote tooth decay! Stevia is easy to use, too. Just drop a leaf into hot or cold drinks, or use it like a bay leaf to sweeten meat and vegetables dishes while they cook -- it's heat-stable! Grind the dried leaves and sprinkle them into cereals and other cold dishes as you would sugar. You can even extract the oil!

The plant is a tender perennial (grown as an annual everywhere except zones 10 and 11) that loves consistently moist soil, full sunshine, and excellent soil drainage. Its leaves reach their peak of sweetness just before the plant flowers, and flowering is triggered by the arrival of short days. So in late summer or fall, when the warm weather suddenly ceases, it's time to cut the plant at the base, hang it upside down in a warm, dry indoor location until it dries out, and then strip those ultra-sweet leaves for healthy "sugar" all winter long.

Stevia is not the easiest seed to germinate, but if you have a Bio Dome, you're halfway there. Grow lights? --It's a snap! Drop one seed into each pre-drilled hole of the Bio Dome and set the dome under grow lights in a 70 to 75 degree room. Germination takes about 7 to 15 days. The young seedlings are strong but grow slowly, so begin seeds indoors 8 weeks before transplant time (after last scheduled spring frost in your area). Of course, for use in the kitchen windowsill garden or other brightly lit indoor setting, seeds may be germinated any time of year. And if you do not have a Bio Dome, cover the seeds with a scant one-eighth-inch vermiculite, and germinate under grow lights if available at 70 to 75 degrees F.

In the garden, Stevia likes enriched soil and needs constant moisture -- but not wet feet -- throughout the growing season. (It is native to South America, where it grows in tropical conditions and is often found along the sandy banks of streams.) Raised beds or hilling are easy solutions. Mulch well when the summer heat arrives. The plant will reach about 12 inches high and 18 inches wide in the garden, somewhat smaller indoors.

Once you have grown and harvested Stevia from your own garden, we predict that you'll fall in love with the health benefits of this natural sweetener! Pkt is 50 seeds.

[azcap]

I have stage IV Colon Cancer. Suppose to be dead 18 months ago but I my wife and 5 kids didn’t like that plan for a 41yr old. You make a good point about fasting and chemo therapy. Initial research on several chemo drugs found that they work but they worked at the same results as just fasting. It can be argued that a great deal of chemos effectiveness comes simply from beating the a patient till they hardly eat or drink. The newer drugs and immunotherapies show better results.
On a side note voluntary fasting has great effect on restricting tumor growth and shrinking them, It is also a great way to avoid many kemo side effects, As your body begins to starve (still drink plenty of water and salt) your cellular metabolism turns to ketogenis. Your healthy cells enter a protective state which helps them from being damaged by the chemo drugs or radiation. They maintain their energy through ketogenis (burning fat and proteins) while he cancerous cells rely heavily on glucose which is mostly absent when you are ketogenic.