Obesity, Inflammation and Cancer

Abstract

Obesity, a worldwide epidemic, confers increased risk for multiple serious conditions, including cancer, and is increasingly recognized as a growing cause of preventable cancer risk. Chronic inflammation, a well-known mediator of cancer, is a central characteristic of obesity, leading to many of its complications, and obesity-induced inflammation confers additional cancer risk beyond obesity itself. Multiple mechanisms facilitate this strong association between cancer and obesity. Adipose tissue is an important endocrine organ, secreting several hormones, including leptin and adiponectin, and chemokines that can regulate tumor behavior, inflammation, and the tumor microenvironment. Excessive adipose expansion during obesity causes adipose dysfunction and inflammation to increase systemic levels of proinflammatory factors. Cells from adipose tissue, such as cancer-associated adipocytes and adipose-derived stem cells, enter the cancer microenvironment to enhance protumoral effects. Dysregulated metabolism that stems from obesity, including insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia, can further impact tumor growth and development. This review describes how adipose tissue becomes inflamed in obesity, summarizes ways these mechanisms impact cancer development, and discusses their role in four adipose-associated cancers that demonstrate elevated incidence or mortality in obesity.

Sugary beverage consumption mediates the relationship between late chronotype, sleep duration, and weight increase among undergraduates: a cross-sectional study

“…Obesity has significantly become a severe public health problem, which has risen as a common social and medical phenomenon and is associated with the growth of the risk for chronic diseases, such as cancers, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease [1–3]. Along with China’s increasing productivity level and people’s rapid consumption level over the past years, this issue has slowly attracted attention on overnutrition among the Chinese population [4, 5].…”

Obesity and Cancer: Concepts and Challenges

“…Obesity also increases risk for second primaries [28][29][30] and predicts worse prognosis in several types of cancer including those of the breast, esophagus, colon, prostate, kidney, ovary, uterus, liver, tongue, and others [31][32][33][34]. In 2007, it was estimated that about 80,000 new patients were diagnosed with obesityattributable cancers [35].…”

Associação entre câncer de mama e obesidade, e influência de dois biomarcadores inflamatórios no prognóstico de câncer de mama nesta população, a relação neutrófilo/linfócito e plaquetas/linfócitos

“…Até os anos de 1990, acreditava-se que o tecido adiposo funcionava apenas como um depósito de energia. Nas últimas décadas tem sido descrito como o maior órgão endócrino do corpo humano e também um órgão do sistema imune, sendo capaz de secretar até 50 diferentes substâncias e citocinas, com importante papel na homeostase, metabolismo e imunidade (62,63). O tecido adiposo compõe ainda 90% do volume mamário e possibilita uma íntima interação entre as células epiteliais da mama e os adipócitos (64).…”

“…A inflamação é sabidamente um componente central do desenvolvimento e progressão tumoral, angiogênese e metástase (84). A obesidade, por sua vez, apresenta um estado de inflamação crônica subclínica, que pode influenciar sistêmica e localmente a carcinogênese (62).…”