Time-Restricted Eating & Obesity

We are interested in how obesity leads to an increase risk of cancer.  One of our current projects is to analyze the role of time-restricted feeding (TRF) in preventing obesity-induced breast cancer growth.  We were among the first to show that both the insulin and IGF-I receptors were over-expressed in primary breast cancers and that the basal and maximally-stimulated receptor tyrosine kinase activity was enhanced in the tumors.  We have recently shown that obesity drives breast cancer growth in preclinical mouse models and time-restricted feeding was very effective at preventing and inhibiting breast cancer growth in obese postmenopausal mice. Ongoing studies are investigating how disruption of circadian clocks and correction by time-restricted feeding affects tumorigenesis.