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Fructose in diet enhances tumor growth: research

Fructose is a sweetener added to ultra-processed foods, typically in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. WashU research shows that the liver turns fructose into lipids that many types of cancers crave.

Fructose consumption has increased considerably over the past five decades, largely due to the widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener in beverages and ultra-processed foods. We were surprised that fructose was barely metabolized in the tumor types we tested,” said the study’s first author, Ronald Fowle-Grider, a postdoctoral fellow in Patti’s lab. Using metabolomics — a method of profiling small molecules as they move through cells and across different tissues in the body — the researchers concluded that one way in which high levels of fructose consumption promote tumor growth is by increasing the availability of circulating lipids in the blood.

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