On Friday 23 January 2026 at 15.00, Jonas Busk Holm defends his PhD dissertation entitled "Obesity, circulating metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers, and the clinical
course of breast cancer". 

How does obesity and circulating metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers affect the clinical cours of breast cancer? This is the focus of a new PhD project from Aarhus University, Health. The project was carried out by Jonas Busk Holm, who is defending his dissertation on 23/01-2026.

Treatment of breast cancer and the assessment of prognosis is today primarily based on markers from the tumor itself. However, research suggests that markers outside the tumor may also influence disease progression, which we have investigated in this PhD thesis. The thesis is based on four studies of women without spread at the time of breast cancer diagnosis. We found, for example, that severe obesity reduced the likelihood of achieving a complete response to preoperative chemotherapy. Blood tests further showed that patients with elevated CRP (an inflammation marker) and high HbA1c levels (long-term blood sugar) had a poorer prognosis, and that low LDL cholesterol – among women not using statins – increased the risk of recurrence. Overall, the results indicate that markers outside the tumor may provide important additional information and could eventually complement traditional tumor markers in breast cancer assessment.

The summary is written by the PhD student.

The defence is public and takes place at Auditorium C114-001, Entrance C, Aarhus University Hospital. Please see the press release for more information. 

Contact

PhD student Jonas Busk Holm 
Mail: jonasbuskholm@oncology.au.dk 
Phone: +45 61797715

Read full press release