New study reveals how fat cells can fuel cancer tumors

Certain breast cancer tumors may feed on neighboring fat cells, a new study reveals. It helps uncover why being overweight is linked to higher breast cancer risk.

Being overweight or obese has long been linked to a greater risk of developing or dying from breast cancer. New research suggests a reason: Certain breast cancer tumors may feed on neighboring fat cells.

The findings may help scientists find ways to treat triple-negative breast cancer, which is notoriously aggressive and has lower survival rates. Moreover, the results may apply to any cancer that uses fat as an energy source, according to the report, published Wednesday in Nature Communications.

Triple-negative accounts for about 15% of all breast cancers. It tends to be more common in Black women and women under 40 and is more likely to recur than other cancers.

The breast tumor cells appear to gain access to the fat cells’ content by poking a straw-like structure into the fat cells and then dislodging the lipids stored there.

If researchers can find a way to block tumors from tunneling into neighboring fat cells without harming patients, they might have a way to cure the often deadly cancers, said the study’s lead author, Jeremy Williams, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco.