Nutrition and cancer prevention

Abstract

Cancer cells invade surrounding tissues and metastasize to distant sites. Diet high in fat is a strong link to, and perhaps causes, a high incidence of tumours. Trans-fatty acid might impair the function and it could be involved in the development of cancer. Cholesterol is also strongly suspected to be involved in the development of tumours, therefore it is important for everyone to eat well, especially for people with cancer to prevent the body tissues from breaking down and helping to rebuild the normal tissue that may have been affected by the treatments. Factors secreted by adipocytes and macrophages such as TNF-alpha and other inflammatory proteins are involved in inflammation in cancer. In addition, MCSF which up-regulates adipocyte tissue is also important for the stimulation of fat cell proliferation and is expressed by human adipocytes. Many cytokines, such as IL-1, IL-6, IL-8, IL-32, IL-33 and MCP-1, are biomarkers for cancer and chronic diseases along with transcription factors NFκB and AP-1; these last two factors are important bioactive substances on the molecular mechanism of the control of genes which in turn affect cellular metabolism. In this paper we revisit the interrelationship between cancer and metabolism.