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The Sugar-Cancer Connection

For years, there has been much debate over whether or not sugar fuels cancer.

For years, there has been much debate over whether or not sugar fuels cancer. But Lewis C. Cantley, Ph.D., the Meyer Director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and Ronald P. Stanton Clinical Cancer Program at NewYork-Presbyterian, says that there is evidence to support the connection.

Cantley explained that the PI3K enzyme is activated by insulin, and is responsible for driving glucose uptake in to the body. However, cancer cells can "hijack" this enzyme so that it uses the glucose to feed the cancer, instead of sending it to the muscles, cells or fat.

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