We know well that certain ways of life can affect our risk of suffering certain types of cancer. A clear case is that of the relationship between smoking and respiratory system tumors, especially lung. We also know that our diet It can affect to the probability that we develop cancers such as liver or colorectal.
However, relationships can be somewhat more complex.
Diet and lung cancer. A new study has linked The diet with the risk of lung cancer, a relationship that until now had remained, if it does not hide, at least in the shadow of other better known and explored connections.
Adenocarcinoma and glycogen. The study focuses on the Pulmonary adenocarcinomaa tumor at the origin of 40% of cases of globally diagnosed lung cancer, explains the team responsible for the study. It is the cancer that causes more deaths in the United States, but it is also the most common lung cancer among people who have ever smoked.
The new study focuses on glycogen accumulation. Glycogen is a polysaccharide, a sugar composed of simple sugars or monosaccharides, in this case a glucose chain. This sugar is used by our body as an energy reserve.
The role of glycogen. The accumulations of Glycogen They had been observed in some types of cancers as well as in other diseases. Now, the team responsible for the new study, studied through computational and laboratory models how this complex sugar acts as “oncogenic metabolite.” As they explain, the greater the accumulation of the polysaccharide in cancer cells, greater and more dangerous will be tumor growth.
In mice. The analysis in animal models (in mice) served to validate the theoretical results. The team found that, by feeding the mice with a diet that they catalog as “western”, capable of facilitating a greater presence of blood glycogen, cancer in the animals of the animals grew. In contrast, when glycogen levels fell, tumor growth was reduced.
The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Nature Metabolism.
Diet and cancer risk. The team responsible for the study emphasizes that, although it is one of the first times (if not the first time) that lung cancer is linked to the diet, there are already numerous occasions when the diet has been put in the center of the strategies for cancer prevention. The diet is also an important pillar in treatments against this disease.
“In the long term, our approach to cancer prevention should reflect the success of the antitabaco campaign (putting a greater emphasis on public awareness and policy -based strategies that promote healthier dietary choices as a fundamental component for disease prevention,” explained in a press release Ramon Sun, who led the team responsible for the study.
Route for treatment. The good news is that the finding can open a way to improve treatments against this type of cancer. And we count at our disposal of drugs capable of controlling the level of glycogen in our body. Without the need to resort to pharmacological treatments, the study also allows highlighting the importance of a balanced diet in our health.
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Image | ROD Long
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