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Home » Exercise Programs » CU study examines the role of lactate in cancer and why exercise reduces cancer risks – The Denver Post

For decades, the role of genetics has dominated cancer research. So it may seem surprising that a major breakthrough in cancer came about in a sports physiology lab at the University of Colorado, adjacent to Folsom Stadium where the Buffs play football.

But theres a link. Lactate the waste byproduct dreaded by athletes that has been mostly studied through the lens of sports could be a critical driver in the development and the spread of cancer.

Iigo San Milln, director of the sports performance department and physiology laboratory at the CU Sports Medicine and Performance Center at CU Boulder, is the lead author of a new study that takes a deep dive into the role lactate plays in cancer. The study shows that lactate is not only present, but also necessary, for every step in cancers development.

San Milln has teamed with renowned lactate expert George Brooks from the University of California Berkeley for the research.

Lactate, as were most familiar with it, is what builds up in the tissues and blood during exercise, and stiffens muscles. The newly published paper draws comparisons between what happens in athletes muscles during training and what happens in cancer development.

The responses to physical exercise and cancer have much in common, Brooks said.

Lactate is a signaling molecule and hormone that regulates different metabolic pathways in the body, San Milln explains. Itis always present in small amounts, he said. Whats crucial is that theres the right amount: When there is too much or too little, it can cause disease. During exercise, lactate is cleared out, but in cancer there is chronic disregulated production.

During high-intensity exercise, working muscles display many of the same metabolic characteristics as cancer cells, San Milln explained. Muscles take up large amounts of glucose, converting it to energy inside the mitochondria and churning out more lactate than the body can immediately clear.

Brooks research shows that healthy people can recycle that lactate for good uses fueling the brain, muscles and organs. However, in cancer, that recycling system breaks down, the authors suggest.

The paper was published February in Carcinogenesis. It expounds on research done almost a century ago by German scientist and Nobel laureate Otto Warburg, who discovered cancer cells take in a high amount of glucose when compared to normal cells. The cancer cells inefficiently convert far less of the glucose into ATP, or energy, converting about 70 percent of it to lactate as a byproduct, according to Warburgs observation. This phenomenon the first sign of a normal cell turning cancerous through abnormal cell metabolism is known as the Warburg effect. San Millns paper seeks to pinpoint why that happens.

The research may also help explain why exercise reduces cancer risks: The bodies of those who work out regularly may be conditioned to clear lactate more efficiently, San Milln said. Meanwhile, a sedentary lifestyle, combined with excessive sugar consumption, could stimulate lactate accumulation, triggering the metabolic misfiring that can ultimately lead to cancer.

San Millns research could also revolutionize diagnostic tools so that deregulated lactate signaling could help indicate cancer is developing.

He believes the medical community needs to rethink its approach to addressing cancer.

Genetics hasnt advanced much in the fight against cancer, or in understanding it, San Milln said. Years ago, we heard Were going to find the gene and turn it off, and cancer can be cured. But thats never happened.

San Milln thinks targeting metabolism could be a far more effective approach to understanding cancer. In fact, preventing and blocking lactate exchange and signaling within and among cells should, potentially, stop cancer, he said. As such, targeting lactate should eventually be a priority in drug development, which holds potential for future research.

Next up: San Milln will team up with University of Colorado Hospital to study the effect personalized exercise programs have on cancer patients.

Eventually, new drugs could be developed, he said, to interrupt the transport of lactate between cells.

We hope to sound the alarm to the research community that to stop cancer, you have to stop lactate, he said.

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CU study examines the role of lactate in cancer and why exercise reduces cancer risks - The Denver Post

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Home » Exercise Programs » CU study examines the role of lactate in cancer and why exercise reduces cancer risks – The Denver Post