It is possible that electricity prices have already made you turn down the temperature in the house. Perhaps there is another reason. A study carried out at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden shows that staying in low temperatures activates what is called brown adipose tissue. It is a type of fatty tissue that uses the sugar that cancer cells need to grow. Similar mechanisms have been found in cancer patients who have been in rooms with lower temperatures. – We found that brown adipose tissue competes with cancer tumors for glucose (sugar) and that it can help inhibit the growth of tumors in mice, says Professor Yihai Cao at the Karolinska Institute in a press release. The study is published in Nature. – The findings suggest that treatment with cold may be a relevant new approach in cancer treatment, but it needs to be validated in larger clinical studies, says Cao. MOUSE EXPERIMENT: The study showed that cancer grew twice as fast in mice that stayed in warm environments than in mice in cold environments. Doubts that you can freeze yourself healthy Therese Standal is professor of cell biology and cancer researcher at NTNU. She thinks it’s an exciting study, but doesn’t think it’s as simple as these mouse experiments show. – It is an exciting principle if you can freeze yourself to recover from cancer, but other studies in mice have shown that the chance of getting cancer is greater when you are cold. The immune system works worse when you are exposed to cold, says Standal to news. Standal emphasizes that it is not just one factor that determines the development of cancer. Nevertheless, she believes this is worth further research. – The mice in the study have been exposed to quite extreme cold, and the results show that the cancer grows half as fast in mice that are cold compared to those that are warm. WORTH A CLOSER LOOK: Professor of cell biology and cancer researcher at NTNU, Therese Standal, believes the results are exciting, but that more research is needed. Photo: Geir Mogen / NTNU Cold mice lived longer In the study, the researchers compared tumor growth in mice that lived under cold or warm conditions. The mice had different types of cancer, among them pancreatic cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer. Mice that lived in conditions of 4 degrees Celsius had significantly slower tumor growth than mice that lived in 30 degrees heat and had almost twice as long survival. The researchers found that low temperatures triggered the absorption of sugar in brown adipose tissue, the type of adipose tissue whose task is to keep the body warm in cold environments. At the same time, it was almost impossible to find signals of sugar use in the cancer cells. When the researchers removed either the brown adipose tissue or a protein it depends on to work, the effect of the cold therapy disappeared and the cancer cells grew again. Also feeding with drinks rich in sugar destroyed the effect of low temperatures. – It also suggests that limiting sugar access is an important way to slow down growth in cancer cells, says Cao. It is a well-established principle, says Therese Standal. – All the body’s cells, and perhaps cancer cells in particular, need sugar or glucose to grow. NEED SUGAR: All cancer cells need sugar to grow. The study shows that limiting sugar access can also prevent cancer cells from growing. Photo: Magne Børset/NTNU Positive results also in human studies To see how relevant this type of treatment is for humans, six healthy people and one cancer patient were recruited. The researchers identified the amount of brown fat in the neck, spine and chest area of the healthy subjects. They had to stay in a room with a temperature of 16 degrees for six hours every day for a period of two weeks, wearing only a T-shirt and shorts. The one cancer patient in the experiment stayed in a room with 22 degrees for a week, and in a room with 28 degrees for four days. Measurements showed that the amount of brown adipose tissue increased in the test subjects, and that in the cancer patient there was lower sugar uptake in the tumor when staying in an environment of 22 degrees than at 28 degrees. . – These are temperatures most people can tolerate, says Yihai Cao. We therefore believe that cold therapy and activation of brown adipose tissue can be a tool in the toolbox when it comes to cancer treatment.
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Lower temperatures can help patients with cancer during treatment – news Trøndelag
