Palmitic acid, a saturated fat concentrated in meat and dairy, can boost the metastatic potential of cancer cells through the fat receptor CD36.
The leading cause of death in cancer patients is metastasis formation. That’s how most people die of cancer—not from the primary tumor, but the cancer spreading through the body. “It is estimated that metastasis is responsible for ~90% of cancer deaths,” and little progress has been made in stopping the spread, despite our modern medical armamentarium. In fact, we can sometimes make matters worse. In an editorial entitled “Therapy-Induced Metastasis,” its authors “provide evidence that all the common therapies, including radiotherapy, chemotherapy, fine needle biopsies, surgical procedures and anaesthesia, have the potential to contribute to tumour progression.” You can imagine how cutting around a tumor and severing blood vessels might lead to the “migration of residual tumour cells,” but why chemotherapy? How might chemo exacerbate metastases? “Despite reducing the size of primary tumors, chemotherapy changes the tumor microenvironment”—its surrounding tissues—“resulting in an increased escape of cancer cells into the blood stream.” Sometimes, chemo, surgery, and radiation are entirely justified, but, again, other times, these treatments can make matters worse. If only we had a way to treat the cause of the cancer’s spreading.
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