Nathan A. Berger – författare

Energy Balance and Cancer, Epidemiology and Overview is the first in a series of monographs to address the multiple facets of the world wide pandemic of overweight and obesity and its relation to cancer. This volume, authored by leading experts in their perspective fields, provides a broad and comprehensive overview of the problem from the epidemiologic viewpoint with focus on both general and special populations as well as a description of potential molecular mechanisms and reviews of the latest studies of factors impacting the association of energy balance and cancer including the effects of genetics, caloric restriction, exercise, behavior and the built environment.

The collected chapters and the authors contributing to this initial volume represent a transdisciplinary approach to analyze and develop novel approaches to understand and solve what, up to now, is a globally refractory problem. The book is written to be understandable and informative to individuals from all concerned disciplines. It should serve to orient students, investigators, nutritionists, public health officials, community planners, clinicians and policy makers to the extent of the problem, its multiple dimensions and potential approaches for research and corrective interventions.

In addition to its metabolic and endocrinologic effects, obesity and adipose tissue have now been shown to be associated with low grade inflammation resulting in cellular and humoral inflammatory factors of which the latter may act by endocrine, paracrine and autocrine mechanisms. These inflammatory mediators have increasingly been suggested as contributing to the obesity link to carcinogenesis and cancer promotion.

This volume of Energy Balance and Cancer will focus on recent developments and cutting edge research pointing to inflammation and inflammatory factors as key mediators of this linkage. The volume first provides information on inflammation as an important link between obesity and insulin resistance, which is in itself linked to promotion of cancer through hyperinsulinemia. The volume then covers some of the most important mechanisms by which obesity leads to inflammation, including the novel inflammasome concept, alterations in chromatin structure, circulating inflammatory factors, unique cellular interactions between adipocytes and macrophages and the direct link of dietary fat to inflammation and cancer.

Overall, this volume will provide important insight to help understand how inflammation may help modulate the linkage between obesity and cancer and serve as a platform for developing future research in this area.

Sleep has recently been recognized as a critical determinant of energy balance regulating, restoration and repair of many of the physiologic and psychologic processes involved in modulating energy intake and utilization. In addition to having an impact on obesity, sleep abnormalities, both quantitative and qualitative, have now been shown to have significant effects on obesity associated comorbidities, including metabolic syndrome, premalignant lesions and cancer. Sleep problems and fatigue also constitute a significant challenge for the ever expanding group of cancer survivors. Moreover, circadian misalignment, such as that experienced by "shift workers" has been shown to be associated with an increased incidence of several malignancies including, breast, colorectal and prostate cancer, consistent with the increasing recognition of the role of clock genes in the metabolic processes. Of increasing concern is the accelerating incidence of sleep disorders in childhood, their association with childhood obesity and associated abnormalities of circulating cytokines, adipokines and metabolic factors, many of which are implicated as etiologic mediators of the connection between obesity and cancer.

Extensive studies have now been initiated to investigate the mechanisms by which disturbances in sleep duration, sleep continuity and sleep related breathing affect circadian rhythm, central and peripheral tissue oxygenation and metabolism, quality and quantity of dietary intake and circulating inflammatory cytokines and regulatory hormones. This volume aims to present the latest research on sleep, sleep disturbance and its correlation to obesity and cancer.

Cancer occurs in specific places and spaces, each of which have identifiable geographic coordinates, characterized by unique natural, built and social characteristics, all of which contribute significantly to cancer across the spectrum from etiology through diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. In the first volume of this series, published in 2010, a single chapter was focused on these geographic influences. Since then, the field of geospatial studies of cancer prevention and control has exploded in approaches and applications. Accordingly, this volume focuses on what has now become a very specific research endeavor, Geospatial Factors Impacting Breast Cancer. The book provides important insights into this relatively new and rapidly developing field. It should be of value to all students of the Energy Balance & Cancer Series and a wide-ranging introduction to problems in cancer prevention and control for geographers, demographers and other researchers with a geospatial perspective. Moreover, it provides important information for all oncologists, endocrinologists, and behavioral modification professionals to better understand their patients in the context of their environment. It should also provide important considerations for physicians, scientists, public health professionals and disparity investigator planning clinical trials, community interventions and community planning.

This volume provides a transdisciplinary and translational review of many of the leading murine models used to study the mechanisms, mediators and biomarkers linking energy balance to cancer. It provides a review of murine models that should be of interest to basic, clinical and applied research investigators as well as nutrition scientists and students that work in cancer prevention, cancer control and treatment.

The worldwide obesity pandemic has been extensively studied by epidemiologic and observational studies and even, in some cases, by randomized controlled trials. However, the development and control of obesity, its comorbidities and its impact on cancer usually occurs over such long periods that it is difficult, if not impossible to conduct randomized controlled trials in humans to investigate environmental contributions to obesity, energy balance and their impact on cancer. In contrast, model organisms, especially mice and rats, provide valuable assets for performing these studies under rigorously controlled conditions and in sufficient numbers to provide statistically significant results. In this volume, many of the leading and new murine models used to study the mechanisms and mediators linking cancer with obesity, sleep, exercise, their modification by environment and how they may continue to be used to further elucidate these relations as well as to explore preclinical aspects of prevention and/or therapeutic intervention are considered. This volume provides an important compilation and analysis of major experimental systems and principles for further preclinical research with translational impact on energy balance and cancer.