Researchers make breakthrough in link between sugar and cancer

Belgian scientists say they've made a research breakthrough in the relationship between sugar and cancer. Researchers found yeast that had high levels of the sugar known as glucose overstimulated the same proteins often found mutated inside human tumors. Study authors say this work explains the correlation between how cancer cells make energy through rapid breakdown of glucose not seen in normal cells and tumor aggressiveness.

The team notes this discovery doesn't prove eating a low-sugar diet could change a cancer diagnosis.

The finding, published in Nature Communications on Friday, aims to shed light on how cancer develops. The research "is able to explain the correlation between the strength of the Warburg effect and tumor aggressiveness," Thevelein, from KU Leuven in Belgium, said in a release.