In vitro investigation and assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices among community towards the effect of monosaccharides on cancer

Abstract

Definite evidence that the sugar can cause cancer is not yet clearly proven. However, high consumption of sugar has been linked to increase the risk factor of cancer. Overconsumption of sugar will contribute to weight gain and changes in the body system. For instance, the growth hormone would be imbalance which subsequently increased the risk of cancer. The in vitro study by using cell lines can be adapted to discover sugars behaviours towards cancer cells. Thus, the knowledge on this association needs to be disseminated to the community in order to prevent or reduce the incidence and the prevalence of cancer cases. The research is done by two different paradigms, laboratory and community-based studies. This laboratory study is sought to identify the pattern of normal and cancer cell lines when treated with different monosaccharides (the simplest form of sugars) at different concentration. In addition, the community-based study, cross sectional aims to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice among the community in Kuantan concerning the effect of monosaccharides on cancer. The former study has been conducted by employing the MTT assay on three different cell lines (normal human gingival fibroblast, skin malignant melanoma and colorectal adenocarcinoma) after being exposed with three types of monosaccharides (glucose, fucose and mannose). The MTT assay is a colorimetric technique used to obtain the percentage of the cell viability. The latter was conducted by disseminating the questionnaire to the community in Kuantan. The frequency, one-way ANOVA and Chi-square were conducted for the statistical analyses. The p-value is lower than 0.05 was considered significant. Based on this study, the normal cell line was unable to survive when treated with additional monosaccharides. Otherwise, the cancer cell lines were able to survive when treated with the monosaccharides. The level of attitude showing the high score among the community while the level of knowledge and practice among the community were moderate. The association between sociodemographic data (gender and level of education) showed the significant different with level of knowledge. In conclusion the normal cell line cannot tolerate with the additional monosaccharides. The cancer cells were adapted with the environment that has additional monosaccharides. Meanwhile, the level of knowledge and practice among the community concerning the effects of monosaccharides on cancer need to be enhanced.