Breast cancer cells swallow a 'free lunch' of dietary fat particles from the bloodstream

High-fat diets and obesity have been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer and worsen outcomes and prognosis of breast cancer patients. A team of researchers from Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center led by William Kinlaw III, MD, sought to understand how fat from the diet might influence breast cancer cells. In their new study, they found that in addition to making new fat to fuel proliferation, breast cancer cells can take up large quantities of fat derived from the lipid-rich particles that circulate in the bloodstream. The particles bind to the breast cancer cell surface and are then taken into the cell by a novel mechanism not previously described in cancer cells. This uptake provides a large supply of fat that drives proliferation of the cancer cells. Their findings, "Endocytosis of very low-density lipoproteins: an unexpected mechanism for lipid acquisition by breast cancer cells" is newly in press at the Journal of Lipid Research.