Published on October 22, 2024
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Sex hormones, such as estrogen and progesterone, are known to increase risk of breast cancer.
Pre-menopausal women produce most of their estrogen through their ovaries. When they become postmenopausal, they stop producing estrogen via their ovaries but continue to produce it in their fat tissue — where androgens (male hormones), made primarily in the adrenal glands, are converted to estrogen.
As a result, the more body fat a woman has, the higher her estrogen level . . . and estrogen fuels tumor growth.
More specifically, as relates to breast cancer, high levels of post-menopausal estrogen can stimulate abnormal breast cell growth, which leads to more rapid development of estrogen-positive breast cancers.
Among many women with breast cancer, the standard of care is to use drugs that block or inhibit estrogen activity, such as tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors. However, the effectiveness of these drugs may be compromised by the higher estrogen levels in women with higher body fat. This is a major factor as to why obese women who have had breast cancer are at the highest risk for recurrence.
