ABSTRACT
Fats are a major component of energy intake in populations from developed countries, and the observation that energy intake, and consequently body weight, have a role in the process of carcinogenesis was already made in the early 1940s on the basis of animal experiments: rodents fed at libitum had a higher cancer incidence than animals with restricted calorie intake (Tannenbaum, 1940). Still, the evidence linking obesity with cancer risk in humans is now much stronger than that related to dietary fat intake.
