Weight Loss Is Protective in Preclinical Breast Cancer Models: Interactions with the Anticancer Immune Response

Growing research suggests that advanced aging and obesity are correlated with an increased risk and poorer prognosis in triple-negative breast cancer. In this issue of Cancer Prevention Research, Smith and colleagues fed young and old mice a control/low-fat diet, a high-fat diet, or an intermittent calorie restriction (ICR) diet prior to injection of E0771 breast cancer cells. The ICR mice exhibited lower rates of tumor growth across all interventions, with tumor size in ICR mice matched to that of young, lean controls. Most notably, the authors found that ICR mice also exhibited the highest antitumor immunity. These data provide encouraging preclinical evidence that immune dysfunction induced by obesogenic diets is reversible. See related article by Smith et al., p. 453.