Obesity is linked to prostate cancer, scientists know, but it’s not clear why. On Monday, researchers reported a surprising connection.

A color-enhanced scanning electron microscope image of prostate cancer cells. A new study suggests that dietary fat may feed prostate tumors and help them spread. Credit Eye of Science/Science Source
When prostate cancers lose a particular gene, they become tiny fat factories, a team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston reported in a paper published in Nature Genetics.
Then the cancers spread from the prostate, often with deadly effect. Prostate cancers that have not lost that gene also can spread, or metastasize — in mice, at least — but only if they have a ready source of fat from the diet. Continue reading →