A type of fat found in palm oil may help some cancers spread more easily, according to research from the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona, or IRB Barcelona.
The study focused on palmitic acid, a common saturated fatty acid found in palm oil and also naturally present in many other foods and in the human body.
Researchers found that it could make cancer cells more likely to spread in laboratory mice.
Cancer becomes especially dangerous when it spreads from its original location to other organs. This process is called metastasis, and it is responsible for most cancer deaths. Once cancer has spread widely, treatment becomes much more difficult and a cure is often no longer possible.
Scientists have therefore been searching for the biological changes that allow tumor cells to leave one part of the body and establish new tumors elsewhere.
Previous research has suggested that cancer cells can use fats as an energy source and that some fatty acids may influence their behavior. The IRB Barcelona team wanted to understand whether particular dietary fats have different effects on this process.
The researchers studied palmitic acid in models of oral cancer and melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer. They found that adding palmitic acid to the diets of mice increased the ability of the cancer cells to spread. Interestingly, other fatty acids did not produce the same result.
Oleic acid, which is abundant in olive oil, and linoleic acid, which is found in many plant foods and oils, did not increase metastasis in the same way. This suggests that fatty acids cannot simply be treated as one group when scientists study their effects on cancer. Their chemical differences may cause cancer cells to respond in very different ways.
One of the most striking findings was that the effect of palmitic acid appeared to last. Cancer cells exposed to the fatty acid for a limited period remained more likely to spread even after the exposure ended. The researchers described this as a kind of cellular memory.
This memory was linked to epigenetic changes. Epigenetics refers to chemical changes that affect how genes are switched on or off without changing the underlying DNA code. In this case, palmitic acid appeared to reprogram cancer cells in a way that made them better prepared for metastasis.
The team also discovered that these altered cancer cells became better at interacting with nerves around the tumor. The cells helped create an environment that supported communication between the tumor and surrounding tissue. This nerve-related network appeared to make it easier for cancer cells to survive and spread.
The finding could eventually lead to new treatments. The researchers identified parts of this process that may be possible to block, potentially preventing cancer cells from taking advantage of the nerve environment around tumors. The team has been working toward therapies designed to interfere with these mechanisms.
However, the study does not show that eating palm oil causes cancer to spread in people. Much of the work was carried out using cancer cells and mouse models, and human diets and cancers are far more complicated. Researchers still need clinical studies to determine whether changing palmitic acid intake can affect cancer outcomes in patients.
For that reason, people with cancer should not make major dietary changes based only on this research.
Cancer patients can have very different nutritional needs, especially during treatment, and restricting foods without professional advice could cause other health problems. Dietary decisions should be discussed with a doctor or qualified dietitian.
The research was led by Professor Salvador Aznar-Benitah at IRB Barcelona and was published in the journal Nature. The findings provide new clues about how certain fats may change cancer cells and leave them better equipped to spread, while also pointing scientists toward possible ways to stop that process.
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