Cut food supplies for prostate cancer

Australian researchers say they have found a way to treat future prostate cancer by starving tumor cells, according to UPI news agency .

Dr Jeff Holst and colleagues at Sydney's Century Institute (Australia) found prostate cancer cells had more pumps than normal, allowing them to absorb more than leucine , an amino acid. essential, and grow faster than normal cells.

'This information allows us to target the pumps, and we tested two ways. We found that we could interrupt the absorption of leucine first by reducing the number of tubes that inject protein, and then introducing a drug that competes with leucine , 'Dr. Holst said.

'Both approaches slow cell growth, essentially starving cancer cells , ' he stressed.

Dr. Qian Wang, another member of the research team, said that by targeting many different pumps, experts can slow tumor growth in both early and late stages of cancer. prostate.

'In some trials, we could slow the tumor growth by 50% , ' Wang said.

Dr Holst said the finding could lead to a better understanding of the links between prostate cancer and eating leucine-rich foods such as red meat.

'High-red meat diets are correlated with prostate cancer but no one really knows why. We have begun to consider whether these pumps can help explain the link between diet and prostate cancer , 'Holst added.

Research results have been published in Cancer Research.