Does past obesity affect future cancer risk?
Cancer types:
Breast cancer
Project period:
–
Research institute:
VIB Center for Cancer Biology
Award amount:
£249,419
Location:
Belgium
Dr Scheele and Dr Halberg are investigating how obesity can cause cancer to start, and whether that effect goes away if a person who was obese loses weight. They hope this will lead to better preventative medicine to reduce breast cancer risk.
Why is this research needed?
Obesity is the accumulation of excess body fat, and affects around 1 in 4 adults in the UK. Living with obesity is linked to an increased risk of 13 different types of cancer, and around 1 in 20 cases of cancer in the UK may be linked to obesity. Understanding how exactly obesity causes cancer is key to developing better ways to detect, prevent and treat cancer.
Dr Scheele and Dr Halberg are asking a crucial question: what does obesity change in our cells that causes cancer to progress – and does that effect go away if the obesity does? They hope that their results will lead to better preventative medicines for breast cancer in people living with obesity, or who have done in the past.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Curestarters. Your donations not only advance scientific progress but also impact current and future cancer treatments. Thank you for making this possible!
What is the science behind this project?
It’s well understood that obesity is linked to several types of cancer, including breast cancer, endometrial cancer and colon cancer. But scientists still don’t understand how living with obesity can cause cancer. It’s not a simple question – obesity affects the whole body in many different ways right down to how our cells function.
Recent research has mainly looked at how obesity affects patients that already have cancer, but Dr Scheele is investigating how obesity could increase the risk of cancer starting. Her team in Belgium, together with Dr Halberg’s team in Norway, are looking at how obesity changes our cells, and also asking what happens if somebody loses weight and is no longer obese – do the cells remember those changes?
All of us have gene mutations in our bodies – in fact, cancer-causing gene mutations are common, but most of the time our cells’ checks and balances mean that they don’t turn into cancer. Something has to happen in the body to allow those mutations to progress and start forming tumours.
What difference could this project make to patients in the future?
The team want to investigate if living with obesity, or having been obese in the past, makes it more likely for cells that have these mutations to start forming tumours. They will use advanced microscopy in a state-of-the-art mouse model to track these cells and understand their environment to find new connections between obesity, cell changes, and cancer.
Thanks to your support, the researchers are able to pursue their aim of understanding how obesity could cause breast cancer tumours to start. But their results may have far-reaching consequences, not only for other types of cancer linked to obesity but also in cancers relating to ageing.
The project may also reveal more about the importance of diet in improving cancer therapies. Understanding the mechanisms behind the link between obesity and cancer risk could change the way we understand tumour development, helping prevent people from getting cancer and leading to better treatments for patients living with obesity.
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