Study Reveals Fat Cells May Contribute to Aggressive Breast Cancers

(MENAFN) A groundbreaking study has uncovered that some aggressive breast cancers may extract energy from surrounding fat cells—offering a potential new therapeutic target for one of the most difficult forms of the disease, media reported Wednesday.

Published in Nature Communications, the research zeroes in on triple-negative breast cancer, a subtype that makes up roughly 15% of all cases and disproportionately affects Black women and women under 40, according to media.

Known for its aggressive progression and limited treatment options, this cancer may exploit a previously overlooked energy source. "Aggressive cancer cells can co-opt different nutrient sources to help them grow, including by stimulating fat cells in the breast to release their lipids," said lead author Jeremy Williams, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco.

Williams explained that the tumor cells appear to extract energy by extending "a straw-like structure" into neighboring fat cells to siphon lipids. “In the future, new treatments might starve the tumor cells by preventing their access to lipids from neighboring cells,” he added.

In laboratory tests using human tissue and mice, scientists were able to halt tumor growth by blocking the formation of these lipid-transferring structures—known as gap junctions. “Knocking out a single gene impaired the formation and progression of the tumor,” Williams noted.

Independent experts hailed the findings as a major breakthrough. “They found a new way cancer grows and feeds itself,” said Justin Balko, a cancer research professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Columbia University oncologist Julia McGuinness emphasized the clinical potential, calling it "suggesting one pathway to treat aggressive cancers for which we don’t have any good therapies."

She also highlighted possible lifestyle implications: "Slimming down could be protective," she said, referencing the well-established link between obesity and worse outcomes in breast cancer patients.

While further validation in humans is still required, researchers are optimistic. Several drugs that inhibit gap junctions are already in early-stage trials for other diseases—raising hopes that a targeted treatment for triple-negative breast cancer may be on the horizon.

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