Figure 1.

Conditions of metabolic syndrome (MetS) could generate a favorable microenvironment for breast cancer (BC) development. A) Schematic representations of MetS conditions. B) BC cells undergo rearrangements in the pathways of cholesterol metabolism, and several cholesterol derived-metabolites have been described as promoters of cellular growth and proliferation. C) Targets that control cholesterol metabolism could promote BC cell migration and invasion through epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMT). Adapted from: ²¹, ²⁴, ²⁵, ³², ⁴⁸, ⁴⁹.