Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and a leading cause of cancer-related deaths. It begins in the large intestine or rectum and can often be treated successfully if it is found early.
The greatest danger comes when cancer spreads to other organs, a process called metastasis. The liver is the organ most often affected because blood from the intestines flows directly there. Once the disease spreads to the liver, treatment becomes much more difficult and survival rates fall sharply.
A major new study led by researchers at VIB and KU Leuven, working with international collaborators, has uncovered an important reason why some liver metastases become much more aggressive than others. Their findings, published in Nature, suggest that fatty liver disease does much more than affect liver health. It may actually help cancer spread and grow faster.
Fatty liver disease happens when too much fat builds up inside the liver. It has become increasingly common because of obesity, type 2 diabetes, unhealthy diets, and other metabolic conditions.
Many people have fatty liver without knowing it because the condition often causes few or no symptoms. Until now, it was mainly considered a liver problem, but the new research shows it may also influence how cancer behaves.
The researchers studied tissue samples from patients together with advanced laboratory models. They found that people with fatty liver were much more likely to develop an especially dangerous type of liver metastasis.
These tumors grow by invading healthy liver tissue instead of remaining separated from it. Patients with this aggressive growth pattern generally have much poorer survival.
The team then investigated why this happens. They discovered that extra fat inside the liver changes the environment surrounding cancer cells. High levels of fatty acids help stabilize a protein called MYC, which is already known to play an important role in many cancers.
Once MYC becomes more active, cancer cells produce larger amounts of an amino acid called proline. Proline is then used to make collagen, a protein that forms the supporting framework around tissues. This collagen creates a structure that makes it easier for cancer cells to spread through the liver.
The good news is that the scientists also found several possible ways to interrupt this process. By blocking MYC, reducing proline production, or preventing collagen formation, they greatly reduced the growth of aggressive tumors in advanced laboratory models, including models created from patient tissues.
The discovery could also improve future clinical trials. Drugs that target MYC are already being tested, but not every patient responds equally well. This study suggests that people with fatty liver may benefit the most from these treatments. Measuring liver fat could therefore help doctors choose the right patients for the right medicines.
Although the findings are very promising, the work has not yet reached routine patient care. Most of the research was performed using laboratory systems and experimental models, so clinical studies are still needed to confirm that the same benefits occur in people.
Even so, the results provide one of the clearest explanations yet for why patients with fatty liver often experience worse outcomes after colorectal cancer spreads.
Overall, this study changes the way scientists think about cancer. It shows that the body’s overall health, especially metabolic health, can directly influence how tumors grow.
Future cancer treatment may need to focus not only on destroying cancer cells but also on improving the environment in which they live. If confirmed in human trials, this approach could lead to more personalized therapies and better survival for many patients.
This is a strong and important study because it combines patient samples with sophisticated laboratory models to uncover a clear biological mechanism linking fatty liver disease to aggressive colorectal cancer metastasis.
However, the findings are still mainly preclinical, meaning they must be confirmed in human clinical trials before changing standard treatment. The study provides convincing evidence that metabolic health should become an important part of cancer care and opens several promising targets for future therapies.
If you care about liver health, please read studies about simple habit that could give you a healthy liver, and common diabetes drug that may reverse liver inflammation.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about simple blood test that could detect your risk of fatty liver disease, and results showing this green diet may strongly lower non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
Source: VIB and KU Leuven.
