New Study Discovers A Cancer-Fighting Secret

Morning Honey is reporting that a study conducted by the University of Chicago has revealed that trans-vaccenic acid (TVA), a nutrient present in red meat and dairy products, could improve the body’s capacity to fight cancer.

Cancer remains a significant global health issue. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. In 2020, there were an estimated 19.3 million new cancer cases globally.

“Circulating TVA in humans is mainly from ruminant-derived foods, including beef, lamb and dairy products such as milk and butter,” professor Jing Chen said. “TVA enhances CD8+ T cell function and thus promotes T cell–based immune system response to battle tumor growth.”

TVA, a long-chain fatty acid primarily sourced from ruminant foods like beef and dairy, has been shown to activate CD8+ T cells, which play a crucial role in targeting and destroying tumor cells.

In experiments with mice, a diet rich in TVA resulted in significantly reduced tumor growth in melanoma and colon cancer, along with improved T cell infiltration into tumors. “Focusing on bioactivity of nutrients rather than individual food might be more important, and taking supplements with enriched bioactive nutrients is likely more efficient than consuming foods containing these nutrients,” Chen said.

Lymphoma patients with higher TVA levels in their blood also responded better to immunotherapy.

Researchers have cautioned against overconsumption of red meat, however, noting the need to focus on bioactive nutrients and suggesting that plant-based nutrients might also offer similar anti-cancer benefits. “There is early data showing that other fatty acids from plants signal through a similar receptor [as TVA], so we believe there is a high possibility that nutrients from plants can do the same thing,” Chen said.

“There might be ‘nutrients’ from plant-based food that do similar things like TVA, we just don’t know yet. A comprehensive understanding of diverse physiological and pathological functions of each nutrient from different foods is still not available. This warrants future more comprehensive studies to elucidate these functions of nutrients,” Chen said.