A new Canadian study has found that hormones produced in fat cells of obese people can promote breast cancer growth, which suggests that exercise could help fight the disease in some patients.
Michael Connor, associate professor at York University鈥檚 faculty of health, says the association between fat cells, obesity and breast cancer has been known for decades.
His team sought to find out whether fat cells play a role in the association between obesity and breast cancer, and whether interventions targeted at obesity, such as exercise, could be used as a therapy in some breast cancer patients.
It was once believed that adipose tissue, or body fat, was simply storage form for excess energy. However, in recent years, fat cells were found to produce numerous hormones, including ones involving metabolism, energy expenditure and appetite control.
鈥淲hat we found recently is that these same hormones also affect cell growth and the fat cell in a lean person is different than in a fat cell in an obese person,鈥� Connor said. 鈥淚t produced a different pattern of hormones.鈥�
Fat cells in an obese person 鈥渟eem to promote cancer growth,鈥� Connor said, while the pattern of hormones in a lean person appears to inhibit growth.
The takeaway from the research, Connor said, is 鈥渘o different鈥� than it would be if they were looking at modifying the risk associated with coronary artery disease or Type 2 diabetes: 鈥淔itter is better, healthier is better, whether you do that through diet or exercise.
鈥淏oth of those things can modify how a fat cell behaves,鈥� he added, 鈥渟o you don鈥檛 necessarily need the weight loss, what we really need to do is change the behaviour of the fat.鈥�
Connor added: 鈥淲e get so caught up on weight loss and losing weight, it may not be that that is our end goal.鈥�
The findings were published in the
