BREAST CANCER LINK TO OBESITY

FREE fatty acids in the blood appear to boost the proliferation and growth of breast cancer cells, which could help explain obese women’s increased risk of developing breast cancer after menopause, according to recent research.

Researchers at the University of Illinois obtained blood samples from a tissue bank and compared those of healthy women with the samples of women who were healthy at the outset but later developed breast cancer.

They also analysed additional blood samples from 37 non-obese and 63 obese post-menopausal women, as well as samples from 21 post-menopausal women who previously were obese but lost weight.

They found that obese women’s levels of free fatty acids were significantly higher; however, blood levels of all the fatty acids fell significantly in women who were obese at the outset of the study but later lost a significant amount of weight.

The findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, provide more information on how the specific metabolic pathways and genetic processes trigger oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

To explore the impact obesity has on oestrogen-receptor-positive cancer cells, the researchers treated several lines of primary tumour and metastatic cancer cells with the blood of obese women.

They found the cancer cells became more viable and multiplied, effects that increased as the fatty acid levels in the women’s blood samples increased.

Oestrogen-receptor-postive breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer diagnosed today.

Exposure to the fatty acids in the women’s blood also appeared to make the disease more aggressive. |