In a recent study, researchers found that mannose sugar could slow tumor growth and enhance the effects of chemotherapy in many types of cancer.
Mannose sugar is a nutritional supplement. The new finding may help develop new methods for cancer treatment.
The study was done by a team from the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute.
Previous research has shown that tumors use more glucose than normal healthy tissues and that limiting the amount they can use could help slow cancer progression.
But it is quite hard to control the amount of glucose in the body through diet alone.
And because normal tissues need glucose as well, scientists cannot completely remove it from the body.
In the current study, the team found that mannose sugar could interfere with glucose to reduce the sugar that cancer cells can use.
A dosage of mannose that could block enough glucose to slow tumor growth and normal tissues would not be affected.
The researchers first examined how mice with pancreatic, lung or skin cancer responded when mannose was put into their drinking water and in their oral treatment.
They found that the supplement strongly slowed the growth of tumors and did not lead to any obvious side effects.
To see if mannose could affect cancer treatment, they treated mice with cisplatin and doxorubicin, which are the most common chemotherapy drugs.
The researchers found that mannose could enhance the effects of chemotherapy.
It helped slow cancer growth, reduce tumor size and increase the lifespan of some mice.
The team also tested other cancer types and found similar effects.
They grew cancer cells in the lab and then treated them with mannose to see whether their growth was affected.
They found that an enzyme that breaks down mannose in cells could be a good indicator of how effective treatment was.
In the future, the team plans to examine why treatment only works in some cancer cells and which patients could benefit the most from this approach.
The new findings may help develop new cancer therapy.
The researchers warn that more research is needed before mannose can be used in cancer patients.
Therefore, patients should not self-prescribe mannose for their cancer treatment.
The lead author of the research is Professor Kevin Ryan.
The study is published in Nature.
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