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Obesity triggers the development of prostate cancer
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Obesity is one of the most pressing problems of the modern world. According to WHO, there are currently more than 1.7 billion people who are overweight.
Unfortunately, a person’s unsightly appearance is only half the trouble; the worst thing is that obesity can be the cause of a number of diseases, in particular, it can contribute to the development of prostate cancer by changing gene regulation.
A new study published in the journal BioMed Central suggests that prostatitis, one of the most common diseases in men, may be caused by obesity, which is linked to a diet high in fat and sugar, and a lack of fruit and vegetables.
Fats are accumulated energy, due to which the body ensures its survival and ability to move in conditions of lack of food. The accumulation of excess fat begins when the body does not have time to use what we have consumed with food and, thus, the process of obesity begins.
An international team of scientists led by Professor Gema Frühbeck and Dr Ricardo Ribeiro screened fats from different areas of the prostate gland taken from patients who had undergone surgery. Samples were taken from healthy men, those diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (adenoma) and patients with prostate cancer.
Men were also classified according to their body weight.
Regardless of the type of prostate disease, overweight men had different levels of gene activity in their fat compared to lean men.
In overweight people, genes code for proteins involved in the process of protecting healthy cells from “attacks” by enemy microorganisms.
Dr. Ribeiro comments: “In the conditions of modern life, people, due to lack of time, energy and for some other reasons, do not monitor their diet and body weight. For men, this is fraught with the development of oncological diseases, in particular prostate cancer. Understanding how fat deposits and the gene processes occurring in them affect the development of prostate cancer will help to develop more effective methods of combating obesity, and therefore cancer.”
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