Sugar switch may explain link between obesity and cancer, study suggests

Researchers have identified a mechanism that allows cancer cells to grow rapidly when levels of sugar in the blood rise. This may help to explain why people who develop conditions in which they have chronically high sugar levels in their blood, such as obesity, also have an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. When we eat food it is digested into smaller molecules, such as glucose, that pass into our blood stream. As blood is pumped around the body, it delivers glucose to the body's cells, which use it as fuel. For glucose to be absorbed efficiently, it teams up with a hormone called insulin. Insulin acts like a gatekeeper because it binds to receptors on the cell's surface and triggers a 'gate', or channel, to open and let glucose in. "We may be able to stop cancer cells from thriving in an insulin-resistant environment, and break the connection between obesity and cancer." People with obesity often have persistently high levels of glucose and insulin in the blood.