A potential future treatment for prostate cancer may be starvation of tumor cells, said researchers at the Centenary Institute in Sydney.
Dr. Jeff Holst and his colleagues at the Centenary Institute found prostate cancer cells have more pumps than normal, allowing the cancer cells to take in more leucine - an essential amino acid - and outgrow normal cells, UPI.com reported.
"This information allows us to target the pumps - and we've tried two routes. We found that we could disrupt the uptake of leucine firstly by reducing the amount of the protein pumps, and secondly by introducing a drug that competes with leucine," Holst said in a statement. "Both approaches slowed cancer growth, in essence 'starving' the cancer cells."
Dr. Qian Wang, first author of the study, said by targeting different sets of pumps, the researchers were able to slow the growth of tumors in both the early and late stages of prostate cancer.
"In some of the experiments, we were able to slow tumor growth by as much as 50 percent," Wang said.
"Diets high in red meat and dairy are correlated with prostate cancer but still no one really understands why," Host said. "We have already begun examining whether these pumps can explain the links between diet and prostate cancer."
The findings are published in Cancer Research.
