“I am incredibly grateful to WCRF for supporting our project to explore the integration of personalised weight management and physical activity during cancer treatment for patients with obesity. By focusing on reducing weight while preserving muscle mass, this research will lay the groundwork for larger studies that examine the broader effects on tumour relapse, treatment side effects, and quality of life as well as uncover the long-term cardiometabolic benefits of sustained weight loss”.
Background
Obesity increases the risk of developing renal cancer, a cancer that yearly causes 110,000 deaths worldwide. However, our understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms that link obesity to a high renal cancer risk are largely unknown.
Aims and objectives
This project aimed to improve our understanding of why obesity is important in renal cancer, specifically by identifying so-called mediating factors that can give us clues to the underlying mechanisms.
How the study was done
We analysed blood plasma samples from renal cancer patients donated up to 15 years before receiving their diagnosis, and compared them with paired individuals who remained cancer-free. In total, 700 renal cancer patients and comparable controls were included. We used a targeted metabolomics approach to measure concentrations of 150 individual metabolites.
Standard statistical methods were used to compare the cancer cases and controls to identify individual metabolites linked to risk of the disease, and evaluate if they could explain mechanisms underlying associations between previously identified risk factors and renal cancer. We also used more advanced statistical procedures to identify metabolic profiles that may indicate broader disease pathways and mechanisms.
Conclusions
This project strongly suggests that obesity causes a bigger increased risk than previously thought. Furthermore, we specifically identified diastolic blood pressure and insulin as likely to be involved in the reason why obesity increases the risk of renal cancer.
