Research Links Fat Cells With Prostate Cancer, Could Lead To Better Treatments

New research indicating a link between obesity and prostate cancer could see a reduction in the need for radical treatments among Australian men.
The research was conducted by a multi-centre Australian team led by the University of Adelaide and incorporating researchers from the University of Sydney, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne and Belgium's KU Leuven.
They believe that the makeup of lipids in the prostrate glad could indicate how and whether prostate tumours will respond to treatment, and for their work they have received the Revolutionary Team Award, worth $3.25 million over the next three years, from the Movember Foundation and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.
As part of the award, the University of Sydney group is examining the impact obesity has on the cancer, which is the most common in men, and the tumour's aggressiveness.
The University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and Sydney Medical School's Dr Andrew Hoy said that while current treatments for early stage prostate cancer are highly effective, their side effects impact on quality of life significantly.
"The key question is: does every man with prostate cancer need to go through that kind of radical therapy?"
"Obesity doesn't necessarily increase your chances of getting cancer, but if you are obese and you do develop cancer, it is more likely to be fatal," Dr Hoy said.
"Obese people also seem to be less responsive to our current therapies for cancer. This means that as more and more of our population becomes obese, our strategies for managing prostate cancer will have to adapt."
Dr Hoy said that one of the markers of the disease's aggresiveness is the amount of fat around the prostate. The types of fats also play a role in how the tumour cells will respond to treatment.
"We think that these fat cells are providing a fuel tank for prostate cancer tumours. Given the tank of energy is much larger in obesity, the cancer cells have the potential to be much more aggressive and resistant to treatment," he said.
Once a better understanding of how the fats influence cancer cells is accomplished, the team hopes to improve diagnosis of prostate cancer in the short term, enhance existing treatments and create new treatments in the long term.
"With our findings, we aim to be able to determine whether a man needs treatment or not and, if he does, to quickly assess if it is working. Ultimately this will better differentiate the types of cancer that for many men in Australia and around the world are currently being over-treated," Dr Hoy said.
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