Research
Hormonal
Low levels of adiponectin, common in obesity, remove a protective anti-tumor effect, thereby facilitating cancer development and progression.
Improving adiponectin levels through weight management may help restore anti-tumor defenses. This involves reducing visceral fat to normalize adipokine secretion.
ModerateSupportsHIGH confidence
In fact, it has been shown that the reduced concentrations of adiponectin observed in obesity may represent one of the mechanisms to connect obesity with cancer.
Why this rating
Review paper citing multiple observational and mechanistic studies.
Source
Obesity and cancer: the role of adipose tissue and adipo-cytokines-induced chronic inflammation
Rosa Divella et al. · Journal of Cancer · 2016
DOI 10.7150/jca.16884
narrative_reviewCited 332×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity-induced adipose tissue hypoxia and hypertrophy drive a pro-inflammatory adipokine profile (high leptin/TNF-a/IL-6, low adiponectin) that creates a permissive microenvironment for tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis.Moderate
- Elevated leptin levels in obesity promote cancer cell survival, proliferation, and migration by inducing anti-apoptotic, pro-inflammatory, and angiogenic factors.Moderate
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