The body depends on vitamin B2, also called riboflavin, but it cannot make the nutrient itself. That means it has to come from food, including dairy products, eggs, meat, and green vegetables. Inside cells, riboflavin is converted into helper molecules that support metabolism and protect against oxidative damage.

That sounds entirely beneficial, but researchers have now uncovered a troubling tradeoff. The same vitamin-linked system that helps protect healthy cells can also help cancer cells stay alive.

Scientists at the Rudolf Virchow Centre (RVZ) at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) have found that this protective role has an unexpected downside. The same mechanism can also help cancer cells survive.

“Vitamin B2 plays a crucial role in protecting cancer cells from ferroptosis, a special form of programmed cell death,” says PhD student Vera Skafar. She is a member of the research group led by José Pedro Friedmann Angeli, Professor of Translational Cell Biology. The results have been published in the renowned journal Nature Cell Biology.