Is belly (visceral) fat raising breast cancer risk after menopause?
Official title: Obesity, body fat distribution, and breast cancer risk: is visceral fat the culprit after menopause?
Funded at University of Michigan at Ann Arbor · NIH-11015840 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether gains in belly (visceral) fat during menopause help breast cancer develop and grow in women with obesity.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | University of Michigan at Ann Arbor NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Ann Arbor, United States) |
| Project start | February 1, 2023 |
| Project end | January 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $550,649 |
| NIH project number | 5R01CA269726-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11015840 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
The eventual human candidates would be postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity, especially those with central (abdominal/visceral) fat accumulation.
✕Less likely to help
Premenopausal women, men, or women who are normal weight with low visceral fat are less likely to benefit from the findings.
What this research studies
As a woman going through menopause, this research uses a rat model that mimics typical weight gain and increased belly (visceral) fat to study how those changes affect breast tissue. The team measures hormones, fat-derived signals (adipokines), inflammatory cytokines, and how immune cells called macrophages become tumor-promoting. They manipulate visceral fat levels in the animals and follow tumor development to test if abdominal fat causally drives cancer growth. The goal is to identify precise biological targets that could lead to prevention strategies for postmenopausal women with obesity.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Could lead to targeted ways to lower breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women with obesity by blocking visceral-fat–driven inflammation or its effects on breast tissue.
How similar studies have gone: Epidemiologic studies link obesity and visceral fat to higher postmenopausal breast cancer risk, but using animal models to map the inflammatory and immune mechanisms is a newer, less-tested approach.
Where this research is happening
-
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Giles, Erin — University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
- Study coordinator: Giles, Erin
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.