Pew-Stewart Scholar’s Research Shows How Sugary Drinks Accelerate Colorectal Cancer

Sweet beverages, such as sugary sodas and juices, speed up the spread of late-stage colorectal cancer (CRC), according to new findings from Dr. Jihye Yun, a Pew-Stewart scholar who leads research at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Courtesy of Jihye Yun

The study by Yun’s team reveals that sugary drinks accelerate the movement of CRC to the liver. This spread, called metastasis, is what makes cancer so deadly.

The paper joins a growing body of evidence showing the link between diet and disease—and it comes at a critical moment. Early-onset CRC rates, particularly among young people, are rising in the United States and other parts of the world. Scientists are racing to find out why.

Yun, part of the 2020 class of the Pew-Stewart Scholars Program for Cancer Research, said she began asking questions about how sweet drinks drive cancer early in her career as a postdoctoral fellow.

“I wondered whether even moderate consumption of sugary drinks—at levels that don’t cause weight gain—could still increase the risk of CRC,” she said of her time working in Dr. Lewis Cantley’s lab at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

At the time, Yun explained, the dominant view was that sugar contributes to cancer mainly by leading to obesity, a known risk factor for many cancers, including CRC.

“If that were true, then non-obese people who drink soda daily wouldn’t be at risk, but I wasn’t convinced,” she said. “And there was no clear data to prove it either way.”

To find answers, Yun turned to mice prone to developing intestinal tumors. And in 2019, after launching her own lab, she was able to confirm her theory. Working together with the Cantley lab, their research revealed that giving mice a liquid mix of glucose and fructose sugar molecules—roughly equivalent to one can of soda in humans—significantly increased the number and size of colon tumors.

Yun’s new paper—published in Nature Metabolism in September—builds off this breakthrough.

“We already know that sugary drinks increase the risk of developing CRC in its early stages,” Yun explained. “But what about the later stages, once cancer cells are present?”

That question matters because many people—especially young adults—may be living with undiagnosed colorectal cancer while regularly consuming sugary drinks, according to Yun.

“More than 50% of U.S. adults drink sweetened beverages every day,” Yun said. “If someone already has colorectal cancer cells growing silently, these drinks could be fueling their progression.”

In this study, after Yun’s team exposed human CRC cells to both glucose and fructose, the cells didn’t multiply faster, but they became more mobile and invasive. In mice, the cancer spread more quickly to the liver when both sugars were present than when each sugar was used alone.

According to Yun, getting the sugar mixture right in the lab testing is critical. “Added sugar in sweetened drinks usually comes as sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup, both roughly half glucose and half fructose,” she explained. “Yet many previous studies have used only fructose when modeling sugary drink intake in cell cultures or mouse experiments, which doesn’t reflect what people actually consume and can lead to misleading results.”

To better mimic real-world conditions, her researchers use a glucose–fructose mixture representing these sweeteners.

Notably, the team found that this sugar combo turns on an enzyme called sorbitol dehydrogenase, or SORD, which boosts glycolysis—cancer’s primary energy source. This triggers the cholesterol synthesis pathway, the same one targeted by common heart medications called statins.

When the researchers blocked SORD or treated mice with statins, cancer spread slowed—even when the mice were given sugary drinks. Although these findings need to be confirmed in human studies, Yun said they highlight the potential of targeting SORD or even repurposing statins to slow cancer progression.

These results also raise new considerations about how best to nourish cancer patients. Many protein drinks and juices given during treatment are packed with sugar, she explained.

“They’re meant to help patients stay strong, but they could be fueling the disease instead,” Yun said. “We need to rethink that.”

Her team is also focusing on how sugary drinks may reshape the entire tumor ecosystem—not just the cancer cells, but also the immune system and gut microbiome that influence cancer growth and progression. By studying these complex interactions, the researchers hope to uncover insights that could lead to better strategies for prevention and treatment.

But for Yun, the work goes beyond the lab results. She stressed that one of the most effective strategies to prevent CRC will be to tackle a root cause: cutting back on sugary drinks.

“I want my research to make a real-world difference,” she said. “If people understand what’s happening in their bodies and the consequences of drinking sugary beverages, maybe they’ll think twice.”

Sugary drinks include juices, energy drinks, sweetened coffee, and even protein shakes. Often, these drinks contain high levels of glucose and fructose in liquid form, which are absorbed more quickly than sugars in solid foods. Yun said that while people often assume sugars from fruit juice or honey are healthier, they still contain the same glucose–fructose mix found in other sweetened drinks. The difference, she explained, is that fruit juice delivers a large amount of sugar very quickly, whereas whole fruits come with fiber that slows absorption and naturally limits how much sugar you take in at once. For example, people can drink the juice of three oranges in seconds, but they’d never eat three whole oranges that quickly.

“If even one person makes a different choice—if someone puts down a soda or juice because of what we discovered—that’s already a win,” Yun said. “That’s what keeps me going.”

Donna Dang works on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ biomedical programs.