A chemical produced by fat cells makes colon cancers grow faster, aUS study has suggested. The British Journal of Surgery study could help explain why severely overweight people appear to be at far greater risk of the disease.

A team at the University of california, san diego found that the hormone leptin triggered increased growth in human colon cancer cells.

Obese people are up to three times more likely to develop colorectal cancer.

Other researchers have already found that some colon cancer cells appear to be set up to respond to leptin, with “receptors” for the chemical on their surfaces.

The more fat cells a person has, the more leptin will be in their bloodstream.

The san diego team wanted to find further evidence of the link by watching what happened to human cancer cells exposed to the hormone.

In a laboratory, they added the hormone to different varieties of cancer cell.

Growth was stimulated in all the cell lines - and in two out of three tested, the hormone also hampered the usual process of programmed death that allows the body to replace normal cells, but which often malfunctions in cancers.

Dr Kim Barrett, who led the research, said: “These results may explain why obesity increases a person’s risk of colonic cancer.

“The fact we have shown how leptin stimulates these cells means that drug companies may be in a better position to develop new treatments against the disease.”

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