Using Mouse and Drosophila Models to Investigate the Mechanistic Links between Diet, Obesity, Type II Diabetes, and Cancer

Many of the links between diet and cancer are controversial and over simplified. To date, human epidemiological studies consistently reveal that patients who suffer diet-related obesity and/or type II diabetes have an increased risk of cancer, suffer more aggressive cancers, and respond poorly to cu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of molecular sciences 2018-12, Vol.19 (12), p.4110
Main Authors: Warr, Coral G, Shaw, Katherine H, Azim, Arani, Piper, Matthew D W, Parsons, Linda M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal models
Animals
Biology
Breast cancer
Cancer
Diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diet
Drosophila
Epidemiology
Fruit flies
Genetic engineering
Growth factors
Immune system
Insects
Insulin
Kinases
Laboratories
Links
Metabolic disorders
Metastasis
Molecular modelling
Mutation
Obesity
Patients
Prostate cancer
Review
Tumorigenesis
Tumors
Womens health
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Summary:Many of the links between diet and cancer are controversial and over simplified. To date, human epidemiological studies consistently reveal that patients who suffer diet-related obesity and/or type II diabetes have an increased risk of cancer, suffer more aggressive cancers, and respond poorly to current therapies. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms that increase cancer risk and decrease the response to cancer therapies in these patients remain largely unknown. Here, we review studies in mouse cancer models in which either dietary or genetic manipulation has been used to model obesity and/or type II diabetes. These studies demonstrate an emerging role for the conserved insulin and insulin-like growth factor signaling pathways as links between diet and cancer progression. However, these models are time consuming to develop and expensive to maintain. As the world faces an epidemic of obesity and type II diabetes we argue that the development of novel animal models is urgently required. We make the case for as providing an unparalleled opportunity to combine dietary manipulation with models of human metabolic disease and cancer. Thus, combining diet and cancer models in can rapidly and significantly advance our understanding of the conserved molecular mechanisms that link diet and diet-related metabolic disorders to poor cancer patient prognosis.
ISSN:1422-0067
1661-6596
1422-0067
DOI:10.3390/ijms19124110