Obesity is associated with an increased risk for a broad spectrum of tumors, including colon cancer. And once cancer develops, statistics show that overweight or obese individuals are at higher risk of cancer recurrence and have a decreased chance of survival. The underlying mechanisms for this are unclear.
One of the emerging possibilities with regard to colon cancer is that excess lipids a class of organic compounds, including fats, that are insoluble in water accumulate in both the fat-storing and non-fat-storing tissues of obese individuals. These intracellular lipids are stored in droplets (LDs) and are seen at higher volumes in colonic tumors relative to normal tissues. It is theorized that these droplets not only drive inflammation in the colonic epithelium, but they could also be the energy source that drives colon tumor formation and growth.