High-fat diet speeds up breast cancer growth: Study

This new study provides insights and evidence linking a high-fat diet to breast cancer tumour growth and is particularly focused on triple-negative breast cancer, a subtype that is difficult to treat with standard methods.
In India, triple-negative breast cancer is highly prevalent and accounts for about 30% of the annual 2 lakh breast cancer cases.
Earlier research has examined the relationship between diet and cancer, it has not taken into consideration the ways in which interrelated systems, including the immune system and metabolism, can influence the behaviour of cancer cells.
“Across the five dietary conditions, the strongest direct effect was seen in the high-fat condition,” said study author Maryam Kohram.
A 3D model that closely resembles the metabolic environment of the body was used in this study. We asked the authors of the study about the findings and how this model is more reliable.
In order to replicate a realistic environment that surrounds tumours, scientists at Princeton University created a three-dimensional tumour model using a liquid similar to human plasma, ensuring that it behaved more like a real tumor.
This helped them mimic the metabolic effects (chemical processes that manage energy production) of dietary nutrients and further isolated particular nutrients and their effects. They examined the structure, growth, and spread of cancer cells and how different dietary conditions impacted growth.
The researchers tested four specific metabolic conditions that may occur in a human body. They are high insulin, high glucose, high ketones, and high fat that could mimic the circulating nutrients just like in humans.
“In the 3D-engineered tumours, the high-fat condition resulted in faster invasion, larger tumours, and hollow regions. By contrast, the high-insulin, high-glucose, and high-ketone conditions showed much weaker direct effects in our simplified model.”