Obesity is a global problem that raises people’s chance of developing cancer. Several cancers are linked to being overweight or obese, according to the National Cancer Institute. It is unclear how obesity affects cancer risk, though.

Obesity could increase the risk of cancer 

Marsha A. Moses’ lab At Boston Children’s Hospital has found a direct connection that could have effects on cancer detection and therapy. Research findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Moses and her colleagues give convincing evidence that obesity may enable previously latent cancers to trigger the production of a new vascular system, a process known as angiogenesis or neovascularization, by concentrating on one typical malignancy, breast cancer post-menopause. The tumours enlarge and represent a greater concern once a blood supply feeds them.

The scientists went on to demonstrate that mice given medication to prevent blood vessel growth kept breast cancers dormant.

Moses said that they know that once blood vessels occupy a tumour, it can lead to the tumour growing considerably. So tumours would be simpler to treat if we could prevent them from arising early or exiting dormancy.

The team, led by Roopali Roy, PhD, developed a sophisticated model using obese postmenopausal mice, enabling them to see tumour neovascularization. Then, they administered injections of human breast cancer cells that contained the luciferase enzyme into the breast fat pads of mice that were lean and obese.

Blood vessels invade tumours after 3-6 weeks

Finally, scientists injected another substance, luciferin, into the mice’s bloodstreams to identify the infiltration of newly formed blood vessels into tumours. A bioluminescent signal is produced when luciferin and luciferase come together, showing that blood vessels have penetrated cancer.

The scientists then used a number of imaging techniques to monitor the tumour’s progression over time.

The tumours didn’t initially glow since no blood arteries got to them. But after 3-to-6 weeks, blood vessels started to invade the obese mice’s malignancies, which brightened noticeably. In comparison, at 12 weeks, tumours in the non-obese rodents remained inactive.