Common dietary sugar linked to cancer recurrence after chemotherapy, study finds

A recent study has found that the simple sugar fructose may act as a molecular signal prompting cancer cells that survive chemotherapy to spread again throughout the body, potentially explaining why the disease often returns after treatment.

According to The Independent, natural simple fructose—known as "fruit sugar"—is found in fruits, honey, and some vegetables. However, in modern diets, it is widely used as an artificial sweetener and added in large amounts to soft drinks, sweetened juices, desserts, processed foods, and fast food.

The study, led by a team from the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia and published in the journal Nature Ageing, focused on ovarian cancer. However, researchers suspect the findings may also apply to other types of cancer.

When cancer patients undergo chemotherapy, not all cancer cells are destroyed—some survive. The researchers discovered that these surviving cells, although they may stop dividing, remain biologically active and continue to send out molecules that act as signals to neighboring cancer cells, stimulating them to spread to other parts of the body.

Lead author Aidan Cole said, "Our study is among the first to show that a nutrient—fructose—can act as one of these signals."

The research focused on ovarian cancer patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy. While these patients initially respond well, the cancer tends to return in most cases, spreading within the abdominal cavity. This post-chemotherapy spread accounts for about 90% of deaths related to ovarian cancer.

The study confirmed that molecules released by cells surviving chemotherapy alone can significantly increase the spread of cancer cells. This is the first time such an effect has been demonstrated in animal models, not just in laboratory settings.

Researchers warn that even without chemotherapy, consuming large amounts of fructose—as found in sugary drinks and sweetened juices—may also stimulate cancer cells to spread.

Although the effectiveness of reducing fructose intake has not yet been tested in patients, the findings open the door to a new understanding of the role of nutrition in cancer progression.

The researchers believe these results may not be limited to ovarian cancer and plan further experiments to test whether they apply to other cancer types. This could open a new field for understanding the relationship between nutrition, chemotherapy, and tumor spread, and raise new questions about how to improve the effectiveness of current treatments and reduce the risk of cancer recurrence.