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Cancer is a cancer-causing food in almost all kitchen cabinets?
Which foods that house all households at home are suspected of causing cancer? There is a substance that has been controversial for years: sugar! Researchers have now shown that sugar increases the risk of cancer, at least in mice.
Most people try to live a healthy life. This includes exercise and, of course, healthy eating. Now, researchers from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that an everyday food could be carcinogenic. Almost everyone has this nutrient in their home kitchen. These are conventional sugars. The results of their study published the physicians now in the journal "Cancer Research".
Sugar is considered a cancer trigger. Picture: JenkoAtaman - fotolia) Sugar consumption almost doubled the cancer rate in experimental mice
"A commonly used dietary ingredient can massively increase the risk of breast cancer and lung metastases," warn physicians. This was the conclusion of the American researchers who conducted a study on the "effects of sugar intake" in mice. In the study, it was observed that in the controlled test group about 30 percent of the experimental animals developed breast cancer after six months. However, if the scientists gave the animals sugar, the cancer rate rose to a maximum of just under 60 percent.
Cancers are increasing in the next few years
Globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is not even one of the top 10 most deadly diseases today. Unfortunately, we would know very little about some high-mortality cancers, the researchers said. This may make such diseases the most dangerous emerging diseases in the future, Texas experts warned. The WHO estimates that the cancer rate will rise massively over the next two decades. The organization estimates that the annual cancer diagnosis will rise from the current 14 million cases, to about 22 million cancer diagnoses annually.
How should we deal with rising cancer rates in the future? The treatment of cancer is usually difficult. "The main problem is often not the original tumor, but the metastasis of cancer to other parts of the body," said the doctors. This factor makes the disease extremely difficult to treat. Understanding the trigger behind the metastases would be a real treasure trove of knowledge for researchers. This could then be used for preventive or therapeutic purposes.
Fructose makes it easier for cancer to develop
Sugar could increase breast cancer risk and cancer metastases in the lungs. The American researchers tested this hypothesis in mice. The results were clear: mice fed on high sugar developed much more often (up to nearly sixty percent) cancers. The researchers concluded that fructose (the two components of sucrose, glucose and fructose) was the ingredient that made it easier for the cancer to develop. Fructose is often a component of table sugar and may also be contained in liquid sweetener.
In addition, the researchers concluded that high consumption of fructose leads to a greater chance of cancer metastasis in the lungs. This finding is remarkable, since localized cancer is often much easier to treat than cancer, which would have formed metastases in the entire body, said the doctors. This is the first study to show a link between sugar intake and the development of cancer / metastases, the experts added. The American researchers stated that it was important to conduct further follow-up studies on this topic. If further investigations support the current results, the population would have to be informed about the risks of sugar.
Public awareness about cancer risk factors will not happen overnight, but in the long term, the new findings could help save many lives. For example, it can be seen from tobacco that raising awareness about the risks of smoking has led to a large drop in adult smoking rates over the past 50 years, the researchers said.
In the future doctors will focus on cancer immunotherapy
The fight against cancer with drugs is often difficult. One of the biggest tricks of cancer is that it grows almost undetected by the immune system. For this reason, many physicians see a high potential in cancer immunotherapy. This could allow our immune system to recognize and then fight cancer cells. It is very gratifying to see progress on all levels of research in the fight against cancer, added the doctors.