Sugar Feeds Cancers

Previously, scientists have observed that people with Metabolic Syndrome – a condition characterized by central obesity, hypertension, and adverse glucose and insulin metabolism – are at an increased risk for certain cancers.  Using a fruit fly model, Ross L. Cagan, from the Ichan  School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York, USA), and colleagues have demonstrated that sugar activates oncogenes in the tumor, and also promoted tumor cell-specific insulin sensitivity by increasing the activity of the canonical signaling pathway.  The study authors submit that this feed-forward circuit may be targeted with “rationally applied drug combinations, we demonstrate the potential of combinatorial drug intervention to treat diet-enhanced malignant tumors.”