Scientists at The Wistar Institute have identified a mechanism by which a common sugar may help aggressive ovarian cancer spread throughout the body. The study, published in Nature Aging, reveals that cancer cells surviving chemotherapy release fructose, which acts as a signal to encourage nearby tumor cells to detach and metastasize.
Most ovarian cancer patients receive platinum-based chemotherapy to damage cancer DNA and stop reproduction. While many respond initially, the disease often returns and spreads within the abdominal cavity. This metastasis is responsible for approximately 90% of ovarian cancer deaths. Understanding how cells escape their original location is a major priority for researchers.
Fructose as a Chemical Signal
The research focused on cancer cells that survive treatment but stop dividing. These surviving cells remain biologically active and release molecules that influence surrounding tissue. Lead author Aidan Cole, Ph.D., noted that this is among the first studies to show a nutrient like fructose can act as one of these signals in a preclinical model.
The team separated surviving cancer cells from the substances they released. They found that the released molecules alone were enough to significantly increase cancer spread. Further investigation identified fructose as the primary culprit. Fructose is a natural sugar found in fruit and honey, but it is also a key component of high fructose corn syrup used in soft drinks and processed foods.
Instead of serving merely as an energy source, the sugar acted as a chemical messenger. It encouraged neighboring cancer cells to become more capable of spreading. The study also found that consuming high amounts of fructose, comparable to those in sugary drinks, could promote signals associated with cancer spread even without chemotherapy treatment.
Cholesterol and Statin Concerns
To understand the biological changes involved, researchers used CRISPR screens to examine gene activity. They discovered that fructose suppresses cholesterol production in neighboring cancer cells. Cholesterol is essential for maintaining cell membranes and the connections that hold cells together. These connections act like biological glue, making it harder for cancer cells to separate.
When fructose reduces cholesterol production, these connections weaken. Cancer cells can then detach more easily, potentially allowing them to escape and establish new tumors. This discovery provides a possible explanation for how a common nutrient influences one of the most dangerous aspects of cancer.
The finding regarding cholesterol led researchers to investigate statins, medications widely prescribed to lower cholesterol. Approximately 39 million people in the United States take statins to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Because fructose promotes cancer spread by suppressing cholesterol, the team tested whether statins might produce similar effects.
Experiments showed that statins alone could weaken the connections between cancer cells. This raises questions about whether cholesterol-lowering medications could influence chemotherapy effectiveness. Senior author Katherine Aird, Ph.D., emphasized that these results have not been demonstrated in patients and are not a reason to discontinue prescribed statins.
“We haven’t tested this effect in patients yet, but it raises questions about combining cholesterol-lowering drugs with chemotherapy, especially since ovarian cancer is most common in postmenopausal women who are often already on statins,” Aird said.
While the research focused on ovarian cancer, scientists suspect the same process could occur in other abdominal cancers. The team is now designing experiments to determine if pancreatic, colon, and liver cancers behave similarly. The findings do not establish that eating sugar causes cancer to spread in humans, and additional research is needed before specific dietary recommendations can be made.
Source: ScienceDaily
