Weight Loss Reversed Obesity-Induced HGF/c-Met Pathway and Basal-Like Breast Cancer Progression.

Epidemiologic studies demonstrate that obesity is associated with an aggressive subtype of breast cancer called basal-like breast cancer (BBC). Using the C3(1)-TAg murine model of BBC, we previously demonstrated that mice displayed an early onset of tumors when fed obesogenic diets in the adult window of susceptibility. Obesity was also shown to elevate mammary gland expression and activation of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/c-Met compared to lean controls, a pro-tumorigenic pathway associated with BBC in patients.