Sugar can increase risk of breast cancer

People who consume an excessive amount of sugar, especially fructose, are at a higher risk of suffering from breast cancer, a new study indicates.

Published in the journal Cancer Research, the research suggests that the Western-style diet, rich in sugar, is a major risk factor for various kinds of cancers. “A lot of patients are told it doesn't matter what you eat after you are diagnosed with cancer. This preliminary animal research suggests that it does matter,” says study author Lorenzo Cohen of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The researchers found fructose to be particularly harmful as it affects a metabolic process called 12-LOX, which helps cells spread, reports the West Texas News. Cohen says it is not the primary tumour but the metastatic disease that causes majority of deaths in cancer patients.

During the study, the researchers fed mice with different doses of sugar in the same manner as Americans eat every day. They used mice that are genetically predisposed to breast cancer, similar to how many people are.

The research team found that the size of the tumours varied with the amount of sugar fed to the mice. The greater the amount of sugar fed to the mice, the bigger were the tumors. Mice that were given more fructose grew larger tumours, and faster, says Cohen. “We determined that it was specifically fructose, in table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, ubiquitous within our food system, which was responsible for facilitating lung metastasis and 12-HETE production in breast tumors.”

“We found that sucrose intake in mice comparable to levels of Western diets led to increased tumor growth and metastasis, when compared to a non-sugar starch diet,” said Peiying Yang, assistant professor at the Palliative, Rehabilitation and Integrative Medicine department.

This is the first study that explains the direct effect of sugar consumption on the development of breast cancer with the help of animal models., sc