Identifying the Link Between Breast Cancer and Obesity

Andrew J. Brenner, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, clinical investigator, Cancer Therapy Research Center, The University of Texas Health Science Center, discusses a study that was conducted to try to find the link between obesity and breast cancer.

Clinical Pearls:

• Serum that was collected from a group of patients who had survived breast cancer was developed into an assay that would assess breast cancer growth
• The serum was conditioned on adipose stromal cells before looking at the impact on breast cancer cells that were ER-positive
• The serum collected from obese patients showed extra proliferation within the breast cancer cells
• It was determined that inflammation, which is a known systemic problem in obesity, was turning on aromatase activity in obese patients with breast cancer ​