The Epigenetic Landscape of Breast Cancer, Metabolism, and Obesity

Obesity is a risk factor for developing breast cancer, and significantly increases mortality rates in patients diagnosed with this disease. Drivers of this unfortunate relationships are multifactorial, with obesity-induced changes in the epigenetic state of breast cancer cells being identified as a critical mechanism that impact survival, metastasis, and therapeutic responses. Recent studies have investigated the epigenetic landscape of breast cancer to elucidate the molecular interplay between the breast tissue epigenome and its cellular microenvironment. This chapter highlights studies that demonstrates the impact of obesity on the epigenome and metabolome of breast cancer cells. Furthermore, we discuss how obesity impacts the efficacy of chemotherapy and epigenetic targeting drugs, including the emergence of drug-resistance clonal populations. Delineating the relationships between the obesity and epigenetic changes in breast cancer cells will help identify therapeutic strategies which could improve survival outcomes in the rapidly growing number of patients with obesity and cancer.