Episode 14: Sugar and Cancer - Have Your Cake and Eat it Too
When pharmacists provide education about oral chemotherapy medications, there are often recommendations regarding food around administration. This can lead to questions from patients about the well-known myth that sugar feeds cancer cells. Listen to an oncology dietitian as she provides tips on having discussions about sugar and cancer with your patients. Learning Objectives: Discuss the origin of the myth that sugar causes cancer (or that myth that patients with cancer must avoid sugar) Review the evidence behind dietary intake of sugar and incidence of cancer or cancer outcomes Provide tips for having effective discussions with patients regarding this topic Review dietary recommendations for patients undergoing cancer treatment About the Author - Grace Beda: Grace completed her bachelor's and master’s degrees in human nutrition at the University of Guelph in 2013, and has since worked as a Registered Dietitian for 10 years in Calgary, Alberta. She spent the first 5 years of her career in acute and tertiary care hospitals, covering a wide range of wards from general medicine to surgery and ICU. She transitioned to outpatient oncology 5 years ago at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary in the GI radiation clinics, then spent a year at the Red Deer Cancer Centre as the only oncology dietitian where she provided 1 on 1 consultation for patients from every tumor group. She moved back to the Tom Baker in 2020, working in the Head and Neck radiation clinics, then moved to malignant hematology and specifically bone marrow transplants in 2021, where she has happily settled in as part of a diverse multidisciplinary team in the Southern Alberta Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. References: Alberta Health, Alberta Government, Alberta Health Services. (2015, May 1). ABOUT 4 IN EVERY 10 CANCERS IN ALBERTA ARE CAUSED BY FACTORS THAT WE CAN CHANGE. Retrieved from healthiertogether.ca: https://www.healthiertogether.ca/health-conditions/cancer/ Arends, J. e. (2017). ESPEN guidelines on nutrition in cancer patients. Clinical Nutrition, 36:11-48. Dashty, M. (2013). A quick look at biochemistry: Carbohydrate metabolism. Clinical Biochemistry, 46:1339-1352. FAO. (2011). Dietary Protein Quality Evaluation in Human Nutrition. Auckland, New Zealand: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Fenton, T. H. (2016). Systematic review of the association between dietary acid load, alkaline water and cancer. BMJ Open, 6(6): e010438. Ford, K. A. (2022). The importance of protein sources to support muscle anabolism in cancer: An expert group opinion. Clinical Nutrition, 41:192-201. Gallagher, E. L. (2020). Hyperinsulinaemia in cancer. Nat Rev Cancer, Nov;20(11):629-644. Hamaguchi, R. I. (2022). Clinical review of alkalization therapy in cancer treatment. Front Oncol, 12: 1003588. Liberti, M. L. (2016). The Warburg Effect: How Does it Benefit Cancer Cells? Trends Biochem Sci, Mar; 41(3): 211–218. Mintziras I, M. M. (2018). Sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity are significantly associated with poorer overall survival in patients with pancreatic cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Surg , 59:19–26. Prado, C. L. (2022). Examining guidelines and new evidence in oncology nutrition: a position paper on gaps and opportunities in multimodal approaches to improve patient care. Supportive Care in Cancer, 30:3073–3083. Vigneri, R. S. (2020). Rethinking the Relationship between Insulin and Cancer. Trends Endocrinol Metab, Aug;31(8):551-560. Xiao J, C. B. (2020). Association of low muscle mass and low muscle radiodensity with morbidity and mortality for colon cancer surgery. JAMA Surg, 155:942–949. Zhang, A. W. (2021). Hyperinsulinemia in Obesity, Inflammation, and Cancer. Diabetes Metab J, May; 45(3): 285–311.
