Thursday November 11, 2021
Diet as a new cancer therapy?
Palm oil promotes tumor spread
Metastatic cancer is one of the leading causes of death in cancer patients. A new study shows how the fatty acid in palm oil promotes the metastasis of tumors – and how this process can possibly be stopped in the future.
The fatty acid found in palm oil contributes to the spread of cancer. This is what scientists from the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB) in Barcelona found out. The study published in the journal “Nature” shows that palmitic acid promotes metastasis in mouth and skin cancer. “There is something very special about palmitic acid that makes it an extremely powerful promoter of metastasis,” said Salvador Aznar-Benitah of the IRB of the British newspaper “Guardian”.
In the future, diet plans could complement certain cancer therapies. However, the scientists warn that patients are not indulging in diets. “I think it is too early to know what kind of diet metastatic cancer patients could take that would slow the metastatic process,” Aznar-Benitah told the Guardian.
It is already known in science that the ingestion of fatty acids contributes to the formation of metastases. The IRB study examined carefully whether all fatty acids promote metastasis. The results show that oleic and linoleic acid do not promote this process in mice, whereas palmitic acid does.
Diet as cancer therapy
The study complements the already known evidence that diet can be used to improve existing cancer therapies. Tumor cells need certain nutrients in order to spread – especially in critical phases such as metastasis. So certain diets could prevent this from spreading.
Previous studies have shown that only a few cells in a tumor have the ability to spread. It is precisely these cancer cells that seem to be particularly dependent on fatty acids. The latest study by the IRB limits this to palmitic acid, which is contained in palm oil, but also in a variety of other foods such as butter and olive oil.
The study in mice found that mouth and skin cancer was more likely to spread if the mice were given palmitic acid as well. Other fatty acids like oleic acid and linoleic acid – omega-9 and omega-6 fatty acids found in foods like olive oil and flaxseed – didn’t have the same effect. None of the fatty acids examined increased the risk of developing cancer at all.
Cancer cells in a regenerative state
Palmitic acid appears to change certain functions of genes in cancer cells. This enables them to recognize fatty acids better and to utilize them more efficiently. Palmitic acid also appears to restore cancer cells to a regenerative state. This creates networks outside the tumor, which is known to be a critical step in its spread.
Metastatic cancer remains one of the leading causes of death in cancer patients. Often at this stage cancer can only be treated but not cured. This study could help reduce metastasis prevent in cancer patients. As the “Guardian” reports, the scientists are planning another study with proteins that interfere with the tumor’s response to palmitic acid. “This is a much more realistic approach to real therapy that doesn’t depend on whether a patient likes Nutella or pizza,” Aznar-Benitah told the newspaper. “Playing with diets is so complicated.”