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Blood Glucose & Lung Cancer
“Cancer cells use a lot of sugar to fuel their rapid growth and spread. This has led scientists to consider cutting off their sugar supply as a way to treat cancer.”
Why is it that conventional oncology research always seems to be five steps behind the rest of the world? Sugar has been shown to feed cancer for years. The studies linked below cite glucose feeding lung cancer cells.
To be clear, I am NOT saying that “sugar feeds cancer” and therefore lung cancer patients should stop eating all forms of sugar.
Yes, lung cancer patients should not eat refined sugar. The challenge as a cancer survivor (my cancer is much different from lung cancer), is that there are many forms of glucose that we put in our body. I no longer eat refined sugar but I eat a lot of fruit which contains FRUCTOSE aka sugar made by fruit.
Enhanced Glucose uptake and metabolism are discussed in this article regarding enhanced progression and growth of lung cancer cells.
Furthermore, the article points out that lung cancer cells survive and thrive by creating their own microenvironment to increase the availability, uptake, and metabolism of glucose by other cells in the immediate vicinity of the tumor.
This “discovery” supports dietary and lifestyle strategies to counter cancer cell growth which drives down available glucose in the blood which undermines lung cancer cell growth and progression.
My point being a diet with no refined sugar and a lifestyle of moderate daily exercise, for example, can slow lung cancer growth, slowing everything else and enhancing your quality of life.
This research also potentially support the use of IPT (Insulin Potentiation Therapy) which use higher than doses of insulin typical for treating diabetes to remove excess insulin from the blood to a level that starves and severely stresses cancer cells and thus sensitizes them to chemotherapy, and radiotherapy treatments or wholistic biological treatments.
Anyway… this study is an affirmation of what we already suspected (really what we already knew about cancer metabolism but is just not accepted in the conventional oncology world.)
To learn more about evidence-based but non-toxic therapies shown to slow lung cancer, scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.
Thanks,
David Emerson
- MM Cancer Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Early Lung Cancer, SBRT if Surgery is Not an Option
- Breakthrough therapies-Lung Cancer
- Chemotherapy-Induced Pain-I.D. Manage
Lung Cancer Resistance: The Key Is Glucose Metabolism
“Focusing on glucose metabolism in a genetically engineered mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma, the scientists isolated tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs) and compared them to neutrophils from healthy lungs.
What they found was surprising: the TANs take-up and metabolize glucose much more efficiently than neutrophils from healthy lungs. The researchers also found that TANs express a higher amount of a protein called Glut1, which sits on the cell’s surface and enables increased glucose uptake and use…
Using X-ray microtomography to monitor adenocarcinomas, the researchers found that removing Glut1 from TANs led to lower tumor growth rate but also increased the efficacy of radiotherapy, a common treatment for lung cancer. In other words, the ability of TANs to metabolize glucose efficiently seems to bestow the tumor with the ability to resist treatment — at least in lung cancer…”
Blocking Sugar Metabolism Slows the Growth of Lung Cancer Tumors
“Blocking a pair of sugar-transporting proteins may be a useful treatment approach for lung cancer, suggests a new study in mice and human cells published today in eLife.
Cancer cells use a lot of sugar to fuel their rapid growth and spread. This has led scientists to consider cutting off their sugar supply as a way to treat cancer. The current study suggests this could be an effective approach but it will be necessary to block multiple pathways at once to be effective…
Insulin potentiation therapy
“Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is an unproven alternative cancer treatment using insulin as an adjunct to low-dose chemotherapy. It was promoted by a paper in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses.[1]
According to Quackwatch, “Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT) is one of several unproven, dangerous treatments that is promoted by a small group of practitioners without trustworthy evidence that it works.”[2]
Method[edit]
Generally, a dose of insulin is injected into a vein, followed by a low dose of chemotherapy drugs when the insulin has been absorbed. The chemotherapy dose is usually 10% to 25% of the proven dose.[3] Then sugar water is injected to stop the hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) caused by the insulin injection.[3]
Efficacy[edit]
IPT has not been proven to work.[3][4] Long-term outcomes, such as survival, have never been published.[3] Four individual case studies, one small, uncontrolled clinical trial and one small prospective, randomized controlled trial have shown temporary reductions in the size of tumors for some patients.[3]
Adverse effects[edit]
The immediate risk is hypoglycemia.[3]
The use of lower than normal doses of chemotherapy can cause drug resistance, which could make future treatment at standard, proven doses ineffective.[3] For some cancers, especially breast and colon cancers, insulin may promote tumor growth.[3]
Mechanism of action[edit]
Two main ideas about how it might work have been proposed. The first idea is that insulin makes cells more permeable, so that the chemotherapy drugs are absorbed faster into cells. The other idea is that insulin might cause the cells to start dividing, which makes them more susceptible to destruction of many cytotoxic chemotherapy drugs.
Cost[edit]
Costs run up to US$2,000 per treatment session.[3] Multiple sessions are normal. Patients often pay the full cost out of pocket, because it is an unproven therapy that is not covered by health insurance.