Changing from a high-fat diet to low-fat helps prevent pancreatic cancer
Jun 05, 2025
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Obesity is known as one of the major risk factors for pancreatic cancer, but the study comes as the effect of diet changes for weight loss on pancreatic cancer incidence is not yet clear.
A research team at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) recently published the findings of high-fat and low-fat consumption of pancreatic cancer model mice in the Journal of Nutrition.
The research team fed male and female mice five weeks old on a high-fat diet (60% of all calories are fat) and a low-fat diet (11% of all calories) for 21 weeks, respectively.
In addition, some mice were experimented with eating a high-fat diet for 8 weeks and then changing to a low-fat diet for 13 weeks.
As a result, mice fed a high-fat diet had a 1.7-fold higher rate of weight gain, with a 60% increase in the transformation of pancreatic cells (adrenal-tubular metaplasia).
In particular, none of the 21 mice fed a low-fat diet developed cancer, but two of the 21 male mice fed a high-fat diet developed pancreatic cancer. On the other hand, the group that changed from a high-fat diet to a low-fat diet had normal levels of weight and body composition, decreased pancreatic cell transformation rate and no cancer occurred at all.
In addition, the team confirmed that a high-fat diet alters gene expression associated with cellular metabolism, pancreatic secretion function, immune response, and cell signaling. On the other hand, the low-fat diet and diet-altering group had similar gene expression patterns.
In addition, the high-fat diet increased the harmful by-products of linoleic acid (fat acid) and worsened the intestinal microbial environment, but this change was mitigated by changing to a low-fat diet. In addition, the high-fat diet changed the intestinal microbial community, and switching to a low-fat diet restored the intestinal microbial community to normal levels.
Regarding the results, the research team demonstrated that weight normalization plays an important role in slowing the incidence of pancreatic cancer accelerated by obesity"Inflammation and cellular signaling pathway regulation, detrimental Busan metabolite reduction, and changes in the gut microbial community are the main mechanisms driving these effects."
The findings highlight the importance of diet control for the prevention of pancreatic cancer associated with obesity, suggesting the possibility that improved eating habits may have a real impact on reducing the risk of cancer development.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
