Ten years after the New England Journal of Medicine published a seminal report by the International Agency for Research on Cancer concluding that increased body weight or size elevates the risk of 13 cancers, more research has focused on understanding how dysfunctional adipose tissue shapes the tumor microenvironment and impacts outcomes.

On Nov. 15, 3:30–4:30 pm ET, the ObesityWeek symposium Breast Cancer — We’re Treating It All Wrong will build on the work of investigators over the past decade to present the latest research findings and clinical applications toward understanding how obesity and metabolic health impact—and are potentially impacted by—breast cancer treatment.

“Studies on these themes have been ongoing for several years, and the challenge now is understanding how we can actually personalize approaches to tackling issues around metabolic health and obesity in cancer treatment,” said Kristy Brown, PhD, who serves as the symposium chair. “For example, we’ve come far enough to understand that physical activity and weight reduction are beneficial at a population level—these data are there and acceptable—but how do we actually implement that while taking into account individual differences in metabolic health and cancer subtypes?”

Dr. Brown, the co-program leader of the Obesity, Metabolic Health, and Cancer Program at the University of Kansas, said the symposium will present cutting-edge research and clinical approaches that seek to define specific relationships—before, during, and after cancer treatment—between the mechanisms of the body, obesity, and weight reduction.

Colin Champ, MD, CSCS, founder and director of the AHN Cancer Institute Exercise Oncology and Resiliency Center, will present research based on his work as a radiation oncologist who sees patients at the time of cancer treatment and works with them to develop physical training regimes concurrent with treatment.

Rachel Perry, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale, will discuss her preclinical models that examine how exercise might reduce the growth of cancer.

There is an opportunity in the breast cancer space to integrate these considerations of obesity, metabolic health, and physical activity.

— Kristy Brown, PhD

The last speaker, Elizabeth Wellberg, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Department of Pathology, will share unpublished data examining how cancer treatment impacts metabolic health and, potentially, diabetes risk.

Dr. Brown said the research that these experts will present represents unique progress in unraveling connections between metabolic health, cancer, and adipose tissue.

“The complexity of this relationship is something that keeps us going and is highlighted by these talks,” Dr. Brown said. “For example, Dr. Perry made a recent discovery (in preclinical models) that physical activity will divert glucose away from tumors and bring it into the muscle, so that’s potentially a mechanism whereby exercise might start to make a difference. She also brings in the immune component of the microenvironment with some data that show how amino acid profiles can impact immune cells.”

Dr. Brown added that the information shared at this symposium can point researchers and clinicians to future investigations and clinical innovations.

“Understanding how these different interventions are working potentially brings us into the next phase of identifying ways of targeting them more specifically and more precisely in cancer treatment,” Dr. Brown said. “It’s important to keep in mind how much progress has been made in the treatment of breast cancer. There is an opportunity in the breast cancer space to integrate these considerations of obesity, metabolic health, and physical activity. We have great tools in treating breast cancer—and we can do even better.”