How cutting lipids could starve breast cancer

"Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah (the U) have discovered that triple-negative breast cancer relies heavily on lipids for growth. These fatty acids, a defining feature of obesity, appear to drive tumor development. The study, funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted using preclinical mouse models, indicates that breast cancer patients and survivors with obesity might benefit from treatments that reduce lipid levels, and that high-fat diets such as the ketogenic diet could be harmful for them."

"The key here is that people have underestimated the importance of fats and lipids in the all-encompassing term that is obesity," says Keren Hilgendorf, PhD, a Huntsman Cancer Institute investigator and assistant professor of biochemistry at the U. "But our study shows that breast cancer cells are really addicted to lipids, and the abundance of lipids in patients with obesity is one of the reasons that breast cancer is more prevalent and more aggressive in these patients."

Triple-negative breast cancer cells exhibit a strong dependency on lipids for growth and aggressiveness. Obesity raises circulating fatty acids and hyperlipidemia, which can accelerate tumor development. Preclinical mouse models demonstrated that elevated blood lipid levels alone drive faster tumor growth. Pharmacologic or metabolic interventions that lower circulating lipids slowed cancer progression in those models. These findings suggest lipid-lowering strategies could provide therapeutic benefit for breast cancer patients and survivors with obesity. High-fat diets such as the ketogenic diet may increase lipid availability and worsen outcomes in patients with obesity. Clinical evaluation of lipid-targeting treatments is warranted.

Read at ScienceDaily