Cancer cells that survive chemotherapy may release a common dietary sugar to help neighboring tumor cells break loose and spread throughout the body, according to a new study from The Wistar Institute that identifies a previously unknown pathway behind one of cancer's deadliest processes.

The research, published in the journal Nature Aging, focused on ovarian cancer and found that fructose, a sugar widely consumed in the American diet, can act as a chemical signal released by cells that remain in the body after chemotherapy treatment. That signal appears capable of making nearby tumor cells more likely to detach and metastasize, a process responsible for the vast majority of deaths from the disease.

Cells that survive treatment keep sending signals

Nearly all ovarian cancer patients receive platinum-based chemotherapy, and the treatment typically produces a strong initial response. Despite that, the cancer returns in most patients and commonly spreads throughout the abdominal cavity, a process responsible for roughly 90% of deaths tied to the disease.

Researchers have previously suspected that cancer cells surviving chemotherapy might contribute to that recurrence by releasing a mix of signaling molecules, even after they stop actively dividing. To test that idea more directly, the Wistar-led research team designed an experiment separating surviving cancer cells from the substances those cells released into their environment.

"Some cancer cells that survive chemotherapy aren't dividing anymore, but they're still biologically active," said Aidan Cole, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Katherine Aird at The Wistar Institute and the study's first author. He explained that the cells continue releasing molecules that send signals to nearby cells, and the study is among the first to show that a........

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