Pancreatic cancers use the sugar fructose, very common in the Western diet, to activate a key cellular pathway that drives cell division, helping the cancer to grow more quickly, a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found.
Although it’s widely known that cancers use glucose, a simple sugar, to fuel their growth, this is the first time a link has been shown between fructose and cancer proliferation, said Dr. Anthony Heaney, an associate professor of medicine and neurosurgery, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.
"The bottom line is the modern diet contains a lot of refined sugar including fructose and it’s a hidden danger implicated in a lot of modern diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and fatty liver," said Heaney, who also serves as director of the Pituitary Tumor and Neuroendocrine Program at UCLA. "In this study, we show that cancers can use fructose just as readily as glucose to fuel their growth."
The study appeared in the Aug. 1 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Cancer Research.
Sources of fructose in the Western diet include cane sugar (sucrose) and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), a corn-based sweetener that has been on the market since about 1970. HFCS accounts for more than 40 percent of the caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages, and it is the sole sweetener used in American soft drinks.
University of California – Los Angeles (2010, August 2). Pancreatic cancers use fructose, common in the Western diet, to fuel their growth. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 5, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2010/08/100803092150.htm
I’m glad I only drink diet soda, though I’m probably killing myself with that in some other way!
Thanks for the fructose info! Good stuff!
Elaine one of the first things they teach you at the diabetic clinic is
that if a word ends in ose, it is some kind of sugar, which is a good thing for all diabetics to know…..on the news they say a lot of Americans are coming down with type 2 diabetes if this is the case then there should be a free clinic that their doctors send them to so that they can learn they also give you a free cook book and information on how to change your favorite receipes so that you can still have your favorite food….I know this has nothing to do with cancer except it may help in pancreatic cancer.
I REALLY try to avoid HFCS, and not only for health reasons.