Cancer Nutrition in Women: Mechanisms and Survival

Nutrition is increasingly recognized as a modifiable factor influencing the risk, progression, and survivorship of cancers that disproportionately affect women, including breast, cervical, ovarian, and endometrial cancer. Global shifts toward energy-dense, ultra-processed diets and sedentary lifestyles have contributed to obesity and metabolic dysfunction, while food insecurity and inequitable food environments shape dietary exposures and exacerbate disparities throughout the life course. Beyond epidemiological associations, nutritional states affect systemic hormones and metabolic homeostasis (insulin-IGF signaling, adipokines), gut microbial metabolites, and tumor-specific nutrient-sensing pathways (AMPK-mTOR, autophagy, oxidative stress programs), thereby influencing tumor biology and treatment response. The rapid expansion of multi-omics resources, metabolomics, and microbiome profiling offers new opportunities to link diet-related exposures to molecular phenotypes, but mechanistic validation and translation to actionable interventions remain fragmented. This agenda is particularly timely across diverse settings and tumor subtypes.

This Research Topic aims to integrate mechanistic, translational, and population health evidence on how nutrition influences women’s cancers and to translate these insights into precision prevention and survivorship strategies. We will prioritize submissions that clarify biological mechanisms linking nutrition to tumor initiation, progression, immune microenvironment remodeling, or therapy response. We welcome work that (i) connects dietary exposures, nutritional biomarkers, metabolomics, or microbiome features to tumor molecular programs using multi-omics and causal inference approaches, and (ii) validates key pathways in controlled experimental systems, including cell, organoid, and diet-manipulated animal models (with rescue experiments where feasible). High-quality clinical trials and observational studies are encouraged, particularly those that include biomarker or molecular anchoring, evaluating nutrition during therapy and survivorship, or generate testable hypotheses for mechanistic follow-up. Global burden of disease (GBD) and other burden-of-disease analyses are welcome when they quantify trends and diet- or metabolic risk-attributable burdens (incidence, mortality, DALYs) across geographies and age groups, motivating actionable nutrition priorities. Analyses using nationally representative surveys, such as NHANES, including linked mortality follow-up, are encouraged to connect dietary intake and nutritional biomarkers with cancer outcomes and survivorship in U.S. women. We also welcome research addressing inequities and implementation challenges, including digital health approaches and policies that improve access to healthy diets. Methodological contributions that enhance dietary exposure assessment, measurement error correction, and reproducible multi-omics integration are also welcome.

This Research Topic integrates mechanistic, translational, and population health research on nutrition and women’s cancers, including breast, cervical, ovarian, endometrial, and related subtypes. We welcome epidemiologic and clinical submissions but will prioritize manuscripts that offer mechanistic insights, such as those utilizing multi-omics, metabolomics, microbiome profiling, or controlled experimental models of nutritional exposure or intervention. GBD-style burden-of-disease studies are also encouraged, particularly when they focus on dietary and metabolic risks relevant to women’s cancers (e.g., dietary risks, high BMI, high fasting plasma glucose) and report standard metrics including incidence, mortality, and DALYs, as well as age-standardized rates and uncertainty intervals. Additionally, we welcome analyses based on NHANES and other nationally representative nutrition surveys, especially those leveraging nutritional biomarkers and linked mortality files. Such work should adhere to best practices for complex survey inference (weights, strata, PSU) and ensure transparent handling of measurement errors. Submissions should clearly define a nutritional exposure or intervention, articulate its relevance to women across the life course (including menopausal status where applicable), and discuss implications for prevention, treatment support, or survivorship in diverse settings, including low- and middle-income countries (LMIC).

• Nutrient sensing and metabolic signaling (insulin/IGF-1, AMPK-mTOR, autophagy, oxidative stress) in women’s cancers
• Diet- and obesity-driven tumor microenvironment remodeling (inflammation, immune suppression) and treatment response
• Metabolomics, lipidomics, and nutritional biomarkers linking dietary exposures to tumor metabolism, prognosis, and recurrence
• Gut microbiome-diet-metabolite interactions (SCFAs, bile acids, estrogen metabolism) in female cancer risk and survivorship
• Hormone-nutrition interactions across menopausal status and tumor subtypes (including endocrine-active dietary components)
• One-carbon metabolism, micronutrients, and nutrition-related epigenetic regulation in women’s cancers
• Bioinformatics and multi-omics (bulk/single cell/spatial) integration with experimental validation, including preclinical dietary interventions (calorie restriction, fasting mimicking, macronutrient quality) in models of breast and gynecologic cancers
• Clinical and observational studies with mechanistic endpoints (including NHANES-based analyses using complex survey methods): biomarkers, tumor profiling, metabolomics, microbiome measures, and linked mortality follow-up
• GBD and burden-of-disease analyses: trends and risk-attributable burden (YLLs, YLDs, DALYs) of women’s cancers linked to dietary and metabolic risks across regions, age groups, and socio-demographic indices (SDI)
• Equity, implementation, and policy: food insecurity, commercial determinants, digital health delivery, and scalable nutrition programs

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• … View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Keywords: Women’s cancers, Cancer nutrition, Dietary exposures

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