A new study by Zeynep Madak-Erdogan (CGD/EIRH/GSP) Associate Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Cancer Center at Illinois Education Program Leader, and her team have found a new mechanism of endocrine resistance in breast cancers metastasized to the liver.

Exposure to PFAS – a class of synthetic chemicals utilized in food wrappers, nonstick cookware and other products – reprograms the metabolism of benign and malignant human prostate cells to a more energy efficient state that enables the cells to proliferate at three times the rate of nonexposed cells, a new study in mice found.

Scientists at the University of Illinois have found that free fatty acids in the blood appear to boost proliferation and growth of breast cancer cells. The finding could help explain obese women’s elevated risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.