Overview

• Mice fed a high-fat diet for eight weeks then switched to low-fat intake saw weight return to healthy levels and a marked deceleration in pancreatic precancer progression compared with continuous high-fat feeding.
• The 21-week experiment isolated fat’s impact by using high-fat, low-sugar regimens that replicate early pancreatic cancer development in a controlled mouse model.
• Diet reversal normalized gut microbiome composition, gene expression profiles and intercellular signaling linked to tumor-promoting inflammation and metabolic dysfunction.
• Obesity is associated with a roughly 50% higher risk of pancreatic cancer and the disease carries an 87% five-year mortality rate, highlighting the urgency of effective preventive measures.
• Findings indicate that reducing dietary fat even after obesity onset may offer a practical strategy to delay or mitigate pancreatic cancer progression, pending translation to human studies.