American Journal of Pathology
American Journal of Pathology
4 years ago

Obesity and Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Disparities, Controversies, and Biology

Once considered a problem of Western nations, obesity (body mass index ≥30kg/m2) has rapidly increased since the 1970s to become a major threat to world health. Since 1970, the face of obesity has changed from a disease of affluence and abundance to a disease of poverty. Over the last 10 years, studies have mechanistically linked obesity and an obese tumor microenvironment with signaling pathways that predict aggressive breast cancer biology. For example, in the United States African-American women are more likely than non-Hispanic European-American women to be obese and to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In 2008, the Carolina Breast Study showed that obesity (increased waist-hip ratio) was linked to an increased incidence of TNBC in premenopausal and postmenopausal African-American women. Subsequently, several groups have investigated the potential link between obesity and TNBC in African-American women. To date, the data are complex and sometimes contradictory. Here we review epidemiologic studies investigating the potential association between obesity, metabolic syndrome, and TNBC in African-American women as well as mechanistic studies linking insulin-signaling to the obese breast microenvironment, tissue inflammation, and aggressive TNBC biology.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S0002944017303966

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