A study has found that when palmitic acid was supplemented in the diet of mice, cancers of the mouth and skin were more likely to spread. The palmitic acid or palm oil remains a controversial substance, however this latest study sheds light on how could be one of the main causes of the increase in cancer diagnoses observed in recent times.
A recent study published in the Nature magazine has made a shocking discovery that links the dietary fat and the spread of cancer.
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The study, funded in part by the British charity Worldwide Cancer Researchfound that palmitic acid alters the cancer genome.
This, in turn, significantly increases the chance that this cancer will spread.
The discovery has left researchers scrambling for find a new therapy that helps interrupt this process hoping that can stop the spread of cancer at a time when diagnoses have increased at an alarming rate.
Metastasis or spread of cancer remains the leading cause of death in cancer patients and the vast majority of people with metastatic cancer they can only be treated, but not cured.
As most of you know, foods can have a big impact on cancer, fatty acids being the building blocks of fat in the body.
Unfortunately, metastasis often is promoted by fatty acids in the diet, also warning that what is put into the mouth can have a devastating impact on health.
The newly published findings, led by researchers at IRB Barcelona, Spain, reveal that one of those fatty acids commonly found in palm oil, called palmitic acid, promotes metastasis in oral carcinomas and melanoma skin cancer in mice.
«There is something very special about palmitic acid that makes it an extremely powerful promoter of metastasis,» said Professor Salvador Aznar-Benitah, from the Biomedicine Research Institute (IRB) from Barcelona.
«I think it’s too early to determine what kind of diet patients with metastatic cancer might be consuming that would slow down the metastatic process.»
The study suggested that exposure to palmitic acid caused changes in gene function in cancer cells that allowed them to detect fatty acids and consume them more efficiently.
The presence of palmitic acid also seemed send cancer cells into a «regenerative state» allowing them form signaling networks beyond the tumorwhich is known to be a crucial step towards propagation.
Palm oil is used in food production as cakes, chocolate, cookies, margarine and frying fats.
Also found in cosmetics, soap, shampoo, cleaning products and can be used as biofuel.
Surprisingly, up to 50 percent of products in an average supermarket now contain palm oil.
Professor Greg Hannon, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institutesaid: “This is a rigorous and comprehensive study that suggests that exposure to an important component of palm oil lastingly changes the behavior of cancer cells, making them more likely to progress locally. to life-threatening metastatic disease.
«Given the prevalence of palm oil as an ingredient in processed foods, this study provides strong motivation for further study of how dietary choices influence risk of tumor progression«.
Helen Rippon, CEO of Worldwide Cancer Research, He added: “This discovery it is a major advance in our understanding of how diet and cancer are linked and, perhaps more importantly, how we can use this knowledge to pioneer new cures for cancer.
Metastasis is estimated to be responsible for 90 percent of all cancer deaths, that is, around nine million deaths a year worldwide.
«Learning more about what causes cancer to spread and, more importantly, how to stop it is the way forward to reduce these numbers.»