Dion Foster, Laura Spruill, Katherine R Walter, Lourdes M Nogueira, Hleb Fedarovich, Ryan Y Turner, Mahtabuddin Ahmed, Judith D Salley, Marvella E Ford, Victoria J Findlay, David P Turner

Socioeconomic and environmental influences are established factors promoting cancer disparity but the contribution of biological factors is not clear. We report a mechanistic link between carbohydrate derived metabolites and cancer which may provide a biological consequence of established factors of cancer disparity. Glycation is the non-enzymatic glycosylation of carbohydrates to macromolecules which produces reactive metabolites called advanced glycation end products (AGEs). A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet all promote disease and the AGE accumulation pool in our bodies and also increase cancer risk. We examined AGE metabolites in clinical specimens of African American and European American prostate cancer patients and found a higher AGE concentration in these specimens among African American patients when compared to European American patients. Elevated AGE levels corresponded with expression of the receptor for AGE (RAGE or AGER). We show that AGE mediated increases in cancer associated processes is dependent upon RAGE. Aberrant AGE accumulation may represent a metabolic susceptibility difference that contributes to cancer disparity.