Emerging evidence suggests that diabetes could elevate the risk of spreading in cancer. In a recent study, researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, has explored the potential mechanisms underlying the relationship between diabetes and metastatic cancer. In their study — the results of which appear in the journal Integrative Biology — the researchers tested this mechanism by looking at how cancer cells from breast cancer tumors fared in environments with different levels of glycation.

The changes to collagen fibers occur through a process called "glycation," a reaction between sugars and proteins or other biological compounds. Diabetes patients have higher blood sugar levels, which lead to glycation and changes the structure of the collagen in their tissue," explains the study's lead author, Young Joon Suh, who is currently a graduate student at Cornell. "If they happen to have cancer, we believe this glycation process promotes the rate of metastasizing." "Future work will be needed to elucidate the biochemical impact of glycation in tumor cell invasion," said the researchers.

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