The Mediterranean Lifestyle to Contrast Low-Grade Inflammation Behavior in Cancer

Sep 24, 2026

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A healthy diet and an active lifestyle help prevent, manage, and treat diseases including cancer. Balanced nutrition supports the body’s nutrient needs and provides protective substances, while unhealthy habits—poor diet, obesity, alcohol misuse, and inactivity—drive chronic low-grade inflammation. Obesity, a key lifestyle-linked factor, increases risks for non-communicable diseases and several cancers. Regular physical activity supports weight control, strengthens immune resistance, and counteracts tumor-cell growth. This review highlights how the Mediterranean diet plus physical activity can trigger biological mechanisms that mitigate low-grade chronic inflammation in cancer patients, improving expectations and quality of life.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

1. Introduction

Lifestyle factors and low-grade inflammation

Obesity and cancer risk

Nutrition, immune regulation, and inflammation

Mediterranean diet and physical activity as interventions

nutrients Review The Mediterranean Lifestyle to Contrast Low-Grade Inﬂammation Behavior in Cancer Rosa Divella 1, *, Graziella Marino 2, *, Stefania Infusino 3, Laura Lanotte 1, Gaia Gadaleta-Caldarola 4 and Gennaro Gadaleta-Caldarola 1 Citation: Divella, R.; Marino, G.; Infusino, S.; Lanotte, L.; Gadaleta-Caldarola, G.; Gadaleta-Caldarola, G. The Mediterranean Lifestyle to Contrast Low-Grade Inﬂammation Behavior in Cancer. Nutrients 2023, 15, 1667 . [https://doi.org/10.3390/](https://doi.org/10.3390/)[ ](https://doi.org/10.3390/)nu15071667 Academic Editor: Herbert Ryan Marini Received: 9 February 2023 Revised: 21 March 2023 Accepted: 25 March 2023 Published: 29 March 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ([https://](https://)[ ](https://)[creativecommons.org/licenses/by/](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[ ](creativecommons.org/licenses/by/)[4.0/](4.0/)) . 1 Unit Operativa Complessa di Oncologia, Ospedale “Mons. A. R. Dimiccoli”, Asl BT, Viale Ippocrate 15, 76121 Barletta, Italy 2 Department of Breast Unit—Centro d Riferimento Oncologico della Basilicata, IRCCS-CROB, Via Padre Pio 1, 85028 Rionero in Vulture, Italy 3 Unit Operativa Complessa di Oncologia, Ospedale “SS Annunziata”, Via Felice Migliori 1, 87100 Cosenza, Italy 4 Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari, Universit di Parma, Via Delle Scienze 59/A, 43124 Parma, Italy * Correspondence: [rosadive@inwind.it](rosadive@inwind.it) (R.D.); [graziella.marino@crob.it](graziella.marino@crob.it) (G.M.) Abstract: A healthy diet and an active lifestyle are both effective ways to prevent, manage, and treat many diseases, including cancer. A healthy, well-balanced diet not only ensures that the body gets the right amount of nutrients to meet its needs, but it also lets the body get substances that protect against and/or prevent certain diseases. It is now clear that obesity is linked to long-term diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. The main reasons for people being overweight or obese are having bad eating habits and not moving around enough. Maintaining weight in the normal range may be one of the best things to avoid cancer. It has been scientiﬁcally proven that those who perform regular physical activity are less likely to develop cancer than those who lead a sedentary lifestyle. Moving regularly not only helps to maintain a normal body weight, avoiding the effects that favor tumor growth in overweight subjects, but also makes the immune system more resistant by counteracting the growth of tumor cells. Physical activity also helps prevent cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. In this review, it is highlighted that the association between the Mediterranean diet and physical activity triggers biological mechanisms capable of counteracting the low-grade chronic inﬂammation found in patients with cancer. This assumes that healthy lifestyles associated with cancer therapies can improve the expectations and quality of life of cancer patients. Keywords: lifestyle; cancer; nutrition; physical activity 1. Introduction Approximately 30–35% of all malignancies are attributed to so-called lifestyle factors, which include an imbalanced diet, being overweight or obese, abusing alcohol, and inactivity [1] . Obesity, deﬁned as abnormal excess accumulation of fat in adipose tissue, causes chronic low-grade inﬂammation. It is associated with a high risk of developing the four main types of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), namely, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and several types of cancer [2,3] . In tumors of the breast, colon, liver, and prostate, obesity is generally a predictor of poor clinical outcomes. Consequently, diet, viewed as the totality of eating habits, is a signiﬁcant environmental component capable of regulating neoplastic risk

FAQs

How do diet and physical activity help reduce cancer risk?

They support weight maintenance, reduce mechanisms that favor tumor growth, and improve immune resistance. The review also connects Mediterranean dietary patterns and regular activity to biological pathways that counter low-grade chronic inflammation.

Why is obesity linked to low-grade chronic inflammation?

Obesity causes abnormal excess fat accumulation in adipose tissue, which induces chronic low-grade inflammation. This inflammation is associated with higher risk of several non-communicable diseases and multiple cancers.

What role does the immune system play in inflammation and cancer?

An unhealthy lifestyle and imbalanced diet can hyperactivate the immune system, creating a low-grade inflammatory state. That state increases the risk of chronic degenerative illnesses and cancers.

Sep 24, 2026

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