A high-fat diet may fuel more aggressive tumours: study

A new study published by American researchers reinforces the idea that a high-fat diet may promote the development of more aggressive tumours, specifically certain types of breast cancer.In laboratory experiments, researchers found that triple-negative breast cancer—a type of cancer that does not respond to most conventional treatments—formed small, hollow growths that extended outward (a characteristic of aggressive cancers) in response to a diet high in fatty acids and cholesterol.The same tumours showed no particular response to four other types of diet.“This improves our understanding of the impact of diet and metabolism on tumour mechanisms,” explained professor David P. Labbé, a scientist with the cancer research program at the Centre universitaire de santé McGill’s research institute. “This is a step forward in our understanding of these interactions.” Over the years, the American team has cultured hundreds of tumours. They found that while tumour growth wasn't really influenced by the diet they were exposed to, tumour structures did change in response to a high-fat diet.In that particular case, the cells moved from the centre of the tumour to its edges. The researchers also measured increased production of the MMP1 gene, associated with collagen degradation.No causal link has been demonstrated, but the researchers believe that a high-fat diet may allow tumours to degrade their immediate environment, paving the way for their proliferation.One of the study's authors, professor Celeste Nelson of Princeton University, noted in a press release that the word “cancer” derives from the Latin word for “crab.” Aggressive cancers, she explained, “possess these tentacles, and it is their tips that eventually invade our healthy tissues, transform into lymphatic or blood vessels, escape and form metastases.”The researchers also admitted to being “surprised” to find that a ketogenic diet had no apparent protective effect on the cells.“Several studies have suggested that high glucose levels accelerate the proliferation of cancer cells and promote their migration, or that a ketogenic diet slows tumour growth,” the authors wrote. “However, we did not observe these effects under our conditions of high glucose and ketone levels.” Labbé—whose own work demonstrated in 2024 that a diet high in saturated fats could promote the proliferation of prostate cancer in animal models—points out, however, that cancer is a multifaceted enemy, and that it is therefore impossible to generalize the results obtained.“There isn’t ‘one’ cancer,” he said. “There are ‘several’ cancers. Just for breast cancer, we have four different subtypes. Will all triple-negative breast cancers react in the same way? That remains unresolved in this particular study.” The researchers noted that the harmful effects of saturated fats on health, particularly cardiovascular health, are already well established. The fact that they can also contribute to more aggressive breast cancer shouldn't weigh too heavily on the mind of a person who is concerned and decides to eat as little of them as possible. “The data we have regarding cardiovascular or metabolic diseases. . .are so strong that I wouldn't necessarily do it to reduce the risk of progression or developing triple-negative breast cancer,” said Labbé. “I would do it for general health and also to live as healthy a life as possible.” The findings of this study were published in the journal APL Bioengineering.ReferenceKohram M., Trenado-Yuste C., Brennan-Smith M. C. et al. Fat promotes growth and invasion in a 3D microfluidic tumour model of triple-negative breast cancer. APL Bioeng. 10, 016111 (2026); doi: 10.1063/5.0291646 This article was initially published on our sister site ProfessionSanté.ca and has been translated from its original French.

A high-fat diet may fuel more aggressive tumours: study

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