Our new paper on diet and pancreatic cancer is online today at @CellReports

The take-home message is that dietary sugar drives pancreatic cancer development https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(20)30861-5

How do we know? Through the power of parallel mouse and patient research.

We identified factors in mice, then used epidemiology and large patient-based resources to test the link in humans, and then went back to @animalresearch to formally test mechanism.

Study led by Dr James Dooley: "We spent years looking at different dietary and genetic changes, and nothing has anywhere near the detrimental impact of a high sugar diet. Our findings suggest that it drives pancreatic cancer onset and makes it a more aggressive and lethal tumour"

The use of mice allowed us to unravel the complex effects of #diet, #obesity and #diabetes on #PancreaticCancer. Since these factors are connected, this type of work is impossible in humans

We saw distinct effects of dietary #sugar, #protein and #fat, and an added effect of #obesity. Not all calories are equal! #PancreaticCancer is also more complex than we thought: onset, growth rates and lethality can be independently modified by diet

Dietary #glucose was the worst. #Sugar accelerated #PancreaticCancer growth and also made the tumours more lethal. In mice, it turns on a gene called Mad2l1, driving the #cancer to divide. Even going sugar-free didn't help: the #tumour remained programmed to kill

We turned to a 20-year old #diet study in 500,000+ Europeans. We analysed the genome of 500 participants who later developed #PancreaticCancer. Individuals with a variant in the gene MAD2L1 who had high dietary sugar had an increased risk of #PanCancer

It is not all bad news though! Plant fats in the diet actually protected against #PancreaticCancer. Equivalent to an #avocado a day to reduce risk by 10%

Another benefit to #vegetarian and #vegan diets!

. @AliStunt: "Here at @OfficialPCA, we strongly advocate for high quality research into this neglected cancer. Dr Liston and his team have made a major contribution into understanding how diet and genetics changes the risk for pancreatic cancer." 1/2

@AliStunt: "Healthy lifestyle choices, such as avoiding sugar-sweetened beverages and choosing a diet rich in vegetables, can reduce your risk of pancreatic cancer, and may be especially important in families with a history of the disease." 2/2

#PancreaticCancer is the 10th most common cancer in the UK (3% of cases), but is diagnosed late in 80% of cases and treatment options are slim.

Because of this, 6% of cancer deaths are due to #PanCancer