New Delhi, Oct 16 || While the keto diet -- high in fat and low in carbohydrates -- is hugely popular for weight loss, a new animal study has warned that it may raise the risk of an aggressive type of breast cancer.
Research from the University of Utah, US, showed that high lipid levels caused by fatty acids -- a key feature of obesity that promotes tumour growth -- can also fuel the risk of triple-negative breast cancer.
The study, conducted in preclinical mouse models, suggests that breast cancer patients and survivors with obesity could benefit from lipid-lowering therapies -- and that they should avoid high-fat weight loss regimens like ketogenic diets.
"The key here is that people have underestimated the importance of fats and lipids in the all-encompassing term that is obesity," said Keren Hilgendorf, from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the varsity.
"But our study shows that breast cancer cells are really addicted to lipids, and the abundance of lipids in patients with obesity is one of the reasons that breast cancer is more prevalent and more aggressive in these patients," Hilgendorf added.