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Abstract

Cancer is one of the most important public health problems of the last years, due to the fact that tumour incidence has increased dramatically over the last decade. Among other factors, the dietary pattern notably influences the development of cancer, as well as obesity and its comorbidities do. They increase the risk of developing several types of cancer: thyroid, esophagus, liver, gallbladder, colon, kidney and multiple myeloma cancer in men and women, breast and endometrium cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. However, the mechanism by which obesity can induce cancer has not been widely investigated. The known mechanisms that contribute to the association between cancer and obesity are related to hormonal changes, such as insulin and insulin-like growth hormone-1 (IGF-1), or sex steroids. Not only hormones can affect cancer development, but also adipokines (leptin and adiponectin) and inflammation. In the same way, patients with obesity and cancer have a higher risk of suffering metastasis, consequently having a lower survival rate. As pre-clinical research has shown, obesity can induce metastasis in melanoma and lung cancer models. Since it has been reported a relationship between obesity and a high mortality rate in oncological patients, it is essential to use drugs to treat obesity and metabolic syndrome in cancer patients, such as metformin, thiazolidinediones and statins. Finally, it is noteworthy to mention that further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms involved in this process, and even to find biomarkers that may be useful for an early cancer diagnosis.