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Washington, DC, Nov. 24: According to a new study, a nutritional supplement called mannose sugar can help slow tumor growth and boost the effects of chemotherapy associated with several types of cancer.
The results of the study were published in the Journal of Nature. This study is a step in understanding how mannose could be used to treat cancer.
Tumors use more glucose than normal and healthy tissues. However, it is very difficult to control the amount of glucose in your body by the diet alone. In this study, researchers discovered that mannose can interfere with glucose to reduce the amount of sugar that cancer cells can use.
"Tumors need a lot of glucose to grow, so limiting the amount to use should slow down the progression of the cancer.The problem is that normal tissues also need glucose, so we can not remove it completely from the body. In our study, we found a dose of mannose able to block enough glucose to slow tumor growth in mice, but not so long as normal tissue was affected, "said lead author of the study Kevin Ryan.
"This is a preliminary study, but it is hoped that the search for this perfect balance will in the future give mannose to cancer patients to improve chemotherapy without harming." to their overall health, "he added.
The researchers first examined the response of mice with pancreatic, lung or skin cancer when mannose was added to their drinking water and administered orally. They found that adding the supplement significantly slowed the growth of tumors and caused no obvious side effects.
To test the effect of mannose on cancer treatment, the mice were treated with cisplatin and doxorubicin, two of the most used chemotherapy drugs. They found that mannose increased the effects of chemotherapy, slowed tumor growth, reduced tumor size and even increased the lifespan of some mice.
Several other types of cancer, including leukemia, osteosarcoma, ovarian cancer and bowel, have also been studied. The researchers cultivated cancer cells in the laboratory and then treated them with mannose to determine if their growth was affected.
Some cells responded well to treatment, others did not. It has also been found that the presence of an enzyme that breaks down mannose in cells was a good indicator of the effectiveness of the treatment.
"Our next step is to research why the treatment works only in certain cells, to determine which patients could make the most of this approach.We hope to begin clinical trials with mannose in humans. as quickly as possible to determine the true potential – new cancer therapy, "said Ryan.
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