Obesity is a growing problem globally and has a strong association with the developing oesophageal cancer, that is cancer of the food pipe that takes food from the mouth to the stomach. It is projected that there will be a 40% increase in the incidence of this cancer by 2020 in parallel with our growing obesity rates. We need to better understand the role of fat in the contribution to this aggressive cancer type, which has a dismal prognosis (~20% survival rates). My project will examine the visceral fat (belly fat) from oesophageal cancer patients. This tissue will be consented by the patients prior to surgery. I will examine how this fat tissue produces energy and the sustances released from the fat (immune factors) pre and post irradiation. The outputs of this work will give a greater understanding to the cancer community how active fat is and how obesity may drive cellular changes and how fat may influence how patients do and do not respond to radiation.
