There’s nothing quite like biting into a warm, fluffy piece of a sugary dessert like a gooey cake or fudge-drizzled brownie. And according to new research published in Nature Communications, certain cancers have a similar propensity for these cravings.
While speculation has mounted about cancer cells’ dependence on sugar for energy, squamous cell carcinoma — a slow-growing lung cancer nearly always bolstered by smoking — “is remarkably more dependent,” senior study author Jung-whan “Jay” Kim of the University of Texas at Dallas said in a news release.
Researchers set out to study what separated the metabolism of non-small cell lung cancers adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, the latter making up nearly one-quarter of all lung cancers.
The team looked at The Cancer Genome Atlas database, home to 33 cancer types with data from 11,000 patients, and discovered that one protein (glucose transporter 1) that transports sugar (specifically glucose) into cells was found in much higher levels in squamous cell carcinoma.
“Prior to this study, it was thought that the metabolic signatures of these two types of lung cancers would be similar, but we realized that they are very different,” Kim continued. “These findings lend credence to the idea that cancer is not just one disease, but many diseases that have very different characteristics.”
The researchers then gave a glucose transporter 1 inhibitor both to mice with each type of non-small cell lung cancer and also to isolated lung cancer cells. While the inhibitor slowed the squamous cancer tumor growth, it didn’t do the same for the adenocarcinoma.
This is hardly the first research to look at the connection between sugar and cancer. Yahoo Beauty points out studies from both Cancer Research and New York University medical investigators that delved into the topics of sugar possibly raising breast cancer risk (not to mention metastasizing to the lungs) and prostate cancer risk, respectively. Americans ate an average of more than 75 pounds of refined sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners in 2015, per United States Department of Agriculture data.
Researchers will next try tests on animals to look at how a sugar-restricted diet affects lung cancer progression.
“We’d like to know from a scientific standpoint whether we might be able to affect cancer progression with dietary changes,” Kim added.
More people die from lung cancer than the combination of colon, breast and prostate cancers, notes Yahoo Beauty citing the American Cancer Society.
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Lung Cancer
What Not to Say to Someone With Lung Cancer
More from U.S. News
7 Things You Didn’t Know About Lung Cancer
What Not to Say to Someone With Lung Cancer
What Causes Cancer? 5 Unlikely Claims Explained
Squamous Cell Cancer Craves Sugar Just Like You Do originally appeared on usnews.com
