Weight problems elevates the danger of at the least 13 main cancers, together with these of the breast, colon and liver. It additionally impairs immune responses that concentrate on tumors and are stimulated by most cancers immunotherapies. But it surely has lengthy been unclear whether or not these results stem from the sheer adiposity—or mass of fats—in individuals dwelling with weight problems or from the precise dietary fat they eat.
Now, a decade-long examine led by Ludwig Princeton’s Lydia Lynch and reported within the present subject of Nature Metabolism has offered a compelling reply to that query.
“Our examine reveals that the supply of dietary fats, not adiposity itself, is the first issue that influences tumor progress in overweight mice,” mentioned Lynch. “We discovered that high-fat diets derived from lard, beef tallow or butter compromise anti-tumor immunity and speed up tumor progress in a number of tumor fashions of overweight mice. Diets based mostly on coconut oil, palm oil or olive oil, in the meantime, do not need this impact in equally overweight mice. Our findings have implications for most cancers prevention and take care of individuals fighting weight problems.”
Lynch and her colleagues—together with Marcia Haigis, a senior writer of the examine and a member of the Ludwig Heart at Harvard College—word that swapping out animal fat for plant fat may be a useful dietary intervention for overweight sufferers present process remedy for most cancers. Such dietary adjustments may additionally probably decrease most cancers threat for individuals dwelling with weight problems.
Lynch, Haigis and others have beforehand proven that weight problems induces adjustments within the immune system and within the microenvironment of tumors that contribute to tumor development. It does so by impairing the physique’s most cancers surveillance system, undermining the flexibility of immune cells—specifically cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) and pure killer (NK) cells—to infiltrate tumors and, as soon as there, kill their cancerous quarry.
Within the present examine, Lynch and her colleagues took these findings a step additional. They elucidate the mechanisms by which the metabolic derivatives of dietary animal fat impair NK cells and CTLs. Additionally they present that it’s this immune dysfunction that helps hasten tumor development in overweight mice—an impact not seen in overweight mice fed plant-based fat. In reality, a palm oil-based eating regimen even boosted anti-tumor immunity and slowed tumor progress in overweight mice.
The researchers recognized a number of metabolic intermediates of dietary fat, particularly long-chain acylcarnitine species, that potently suppress NK cells and CTLs. These metabolites had been particularly elevated in overweight mice reared on butter, lard and beef tallow diets, however not in overweight mice on plant-fat diets. They report that in CTLs, the molecules trigger deep metabolic dysfunction in organelles often known as mitochondria—the powerhouses of cells—compromising their cytotoxic operate. This saps anti-tumor CTLs of their vitality, undermines their manufacturing of an element (IFN-γ) important to their operate and disables their cell-killing equipment.
The palm oil-based eating regimen, however, prevented metabolic paralysis within the NK cells of overweight mice, apparently by amplifying the exercise of a grasp regulator of mobile metabolism often known as c-Myc. The researchers discovered that Myc expression was diminished in mice fed animal fats—and likewise in NK cells from individuals dwelling with weight problems.
“These findings spotlight the importance of eating regimen in sustaining a wholesome immune system,” mentioned Lynch. “Extra importantly, they point out that modifications to fats within the eating regimen might enhance outcomes in overweight individuals present process remedy for most cancers and counsel such measures must be clinically evaluated as a possible dietary intervention for such sufferers.”
Extra data:
Britta Kunkemoeller et al, The supply of dietary fats influences anti-tumour immunity in overweight mice, Nature Metabolism (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01330-w
Quotation:
Examine finds animal-based fat gas tumor progress in overweight mice, plant fat don’t (2025, July 30)
retrieved 30 July 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-07-animal-based-fats-fuel-tumor.html
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