High-Fat Diet in Puberty may Increase Breast Cancer Risk for Women

Recent findings show that women who eat a high-fat diet in early puberty may speed up their breast cancer risk. 

According to researchers from the Breast Cancer and Environment Research Program at Michigan State university, the found that a high-fat diet seen in young women was could increase cell growth and alterations in immune cells of breast tissue. These changes, they found, often persisted into adulthood and could create rapid development of precancerous lesions that ultimately lead to breast cancer.

"This is very significant because even though the cancers arise from random mutations, the gene signature indicating a basal-like breast cancer shows the overarching and potent influence this type of diet has in the breast," said Sandra Haslam, physiology professor in MSU's College of Human Medicine and one of the lead investigators of the project.

"Cancers of this type are more aggressive in nature and typically occur in younger women. This highlights the significance of our work toward efforts against the disease."
Richard Schwartz, microbiology professor and associate dean in the College of Natural Science, has co-led research efforts with Haslam since 2010. The research is funded by a five-year, $2.3 million federal grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute.

"It's important to note that since our experimental model did not involve any weight gain from the high-fat diet, these findings are relevant to a much broader segment of the population than just those who are overweight," said Schwartz. "This shows the culprit is the fat itself rather than weight gain."

Early evidence indicates that the fat, which in this case was saturated animal fat, could potentially have permanent effects even if a low-fat diet is introduced later in life. Schwartz cautions, however, that this preliminary finding requires further investigation and doesn't indicate with certainty that humans will be affected in the same way.

"Overall, our current research indicates that avoiding excessive dietary fat of this type may help lower one's risk of breast cancer down the road," he said. "And since there isn't any evidence suggesting that avoiding this type of diet is harmful, it just makes sense to do it."

The research project is part of a consortium, the national Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program, which studies the impact of prenatal-to-adult environmental exposures that predispose women to breast cancer.

More information regarding the study can be found here.