Eating more fat, cholesterol increases the risk of breast cancer

Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in the US have found that high levels of fat and cholesterol in a typical American diet play an important role in development and spread of breast cancer. The results of this study are published in the January 2011 issue of the American Journal of Pathology .

Currently, the rate of breast cancer in Western countries is five times higher than in other developed countries.

(Artwork: Urgentbodyfit)

In his experiment, Dr. Philippe G. Frank and his colleagues used PyMT mouse research methods to assess the role of fat and cholesterol in the development of breast cancer. This model is believed to have an equivalent relationship with the pathogenesis of human breast cancer.

PyMT mice were instructed to follow a typical Western diet that included 21.2% fat and 0.2% cholesterol. A team comparing PyMT mice will perform a normal diet that includes 4.5% fat and negligible cholesterol.

Scientists have found that tumors have developed rapidly in mice fed a diet high in fat and cholesterol.

In this group, the number of tumors is almost twice as large and 50% greater than those in mice fed a normal diet.

To confirm the fast-growing nature of cancer in rats fed high-fat and cholesterol diets, scientists examined the concentrations of some biomarkers of tumor growth and received see signs of cancer developing faster than tumors in the control group.

Earlier, Dr. Frank's research team discovered a link between cholesterol and the risk of prostate cancer.

Breast cancer is the most common and leading cause of cancer in women in many industrialized countries . According to the World Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) in 1998, breast cancer ranked first, accounting for 21% of all types of cancer in women worldwide.