KU Cancer Center awarded V Foundation grant to study obesity and breast cancer prevention
New grant will fund efforts to understand interactions between obesity and cancer, testing to see if lifestyle changes can reverse it.
Kristy Brown, Ph.D., associate professor of metabolism and cancer at the University of Kansas Medical Center, has been awarded a four-year, $800,000 grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The grant will support the study of how obesity may contribute to breast cancer risk, and how lifestyle changes like weight loss and exercise might help prevent it.
Obesity is one of the few modifiable risk factors for breast cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women. Research shows that excess body fat increases estrogen and insulin levels, both of which have been linked to cancer development. These effects are especially harmful for women who are already at elevated risk, such as those with a BRCA1 gene mutation or a family history of breast cancer.
been awarded a four-year
grant from the V
Foundation, created to
honor basketball coach
Jimmy Valvano.
Brown is co-leader of The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control research program. Her team will study how obesity affects mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside cells, and if restoring mitochondrial function can help prevent cancer from developing. Early findings suggest that obesity disrupts mitochondria, which in turn may cause DNA damage. Exercise and weight loss appear to improve mitochondrial health in other tissues.
Using cells and tissue from women with BRCA1 mutations, as well as preclinical models, Brown will look at whether similar improvements influence breast tissue health, as well as if these improvements translate into lower cancer risk.
The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, legendary North Carolina State University men’s basketball coach, ESPN commentator and member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The V Foundation has funded nearly $400 million in cancer research grants.
“This grant gives us the opportunity to explore a new path to breast cancer prevention and eventually apply these findings to a clinical trial,” Brown said. “If we can understand how obesity damages mitochondria and how to reverse it, we may be able to help high-risk women lower their risk of developing breast cancer.”