Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, but until now no clinical studies had been conducted to determine whether the surgical removal of fatty tissue could decrease cancer risk in humans.
Animal studies have been conducted; a team of researchers at Rutgers University (EE.UU.), whose work was published in PNAS, found that the surgical removal of abdominal fat in mice fed a high-fat diet reduces the risk of ultraviolet light-induced skin cancer. “We do not know the effect that fat removal would have in humans,” reported Allan Conney from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy. “We would like to encourage epidemiologists to study whether there is a lower incidence of sunlight-induced skin cancer in people who have undergone liposuction to remove fatty tissue.”
For more than ten years, the researchers Conney and Lu Yao-Ping have been studying how caffeine and exercise, which also reduce fatty tissue, act to reduce the incidence of UV radiation-induced skin cancer. Despite multiple epidemiological studies linking coffee consumption to a decreased risk of non-melanoma skin cancer, it is unknown how and why coffee exerts this protective effect.
They discovered that the surgical removal of abdominal fat in obese mice fed a high-fat diet resulted in a 75–80 percent lower likelihood of developing skin cancer compared to mice that did not undergo liposuction.
Reducing calorie intake, low-fat diets, and physical exercise are recommended for the treatment of obesity; cancer prevention through the surgical removal of fatty tissue still needs to be explored.
There is much work to be done and much to be discovered, but the first step has already been taken; studies will continue, and new conclusions will be published as they are reached.
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Dr. Alfredo Fernández Blanco
The plastic surgeon Dr. Alfredo Fernandez Blanco stands out in his branch of medicine, as the best breast surgeon, he is also a pioneer in the so-called secondary surgeries or sequelae. With more than 30 years of experience and thousands of successful cases, he continues to achieve the most natural results that can be expected in a cosmetic surgery operation.
