Researchers released a study titled Dietary Palmitic Acid Promotes a Prometastatic Memory via Schwann Cells, which details how palmitic acid in palm oil causes the growth of malignant cells. The researchers state that consuming products with palm oil like chocolate spread could cause tumors on the skin, mouth, and rest of the body.
According to the lead study author, Professor Salvador Aznar-Pineta from the Institute of Biomedical Research, Barcelona, Spain, the palmitic acid in palm oil enables the growth of malignant tumors.
Palmitic acid is a component of palm oil, meat, milk, cheese, and butter. It is a long-chain saturated fatty acid.
The World Health Organization declares palm oil carcinogenic
In contrast, the team found that the oleic acid in olive oil did not cause tumors. Therefore, the omega-9 and omega-6 fatty acids which the analyzed did not have any cancer-causing abilities.
The researchers used mice models to conduct their experiments. They found that cancer cells in the mice would rapidly spread despite having little contact with the palmitic acid.
After these findings, the World Health Organization and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have issued a carcinogenic warning on palm oil. The study has not only raised alarms over having palm oil in our diets but has also paved the way to treatments that prevent cancer from spreading to other body parts.
Despite palm oil increasing tumor proliferation in people with cancer, the team notes that it does not increase the likelihood of getting cancer. The focus of their study was solely to establish which measures would prevent tumor proliferation.
For a long time, scientists have known that fatty acids, which make up fat, nourish tumor cells. However, they are not sure of the mechanism the study shows that palmitic acid altars the genome.
Palmitic acid caused epigenetic changes
When researchers exposed the cancer cells to palmitic acid, the tumors spread. They did not stop spreading even after they changed the mice’s diet. They concluded that palm oil caused epigenetic changes in gene function resulting in genetic memory.
The genetic changes caused the cancer cells to spread as they formed neural networks that surrounded the tumor. The results led the team to find a way to block communication by creating antibodies that stopped proliferation.
