Only rare cases have seen lipomas turning into a serious case, mostly when they become painful and red. Cancerous fatty cells are called liposarcomas, which do not develop from lipomas and are tumours of a different kind. People with certain medical conditions are at an increased risk of developing lipomas. Those conditions are as follows:

Gardner’s Syndrome: It’s a genetic disorder which is rare to be seen. Benign or noncancerous growths emerge in the body but usually end up in colon cancer because most of these tumours appear on the colon. There’s also a risk of fibromas, cysts and lipomas appearing under the skin. People with this syndrome have a defect in their genes which triggers abnormal tissue growth and those who have even one of the parents affected by it, run a risk of inheriting it.

Cowden Syndrome: People with this condition develop multiple non-cancerous growths called hamartomas. Such patients run a risk of developing cancer in the future. People with Cowden Syndrome usually develop cancer in their thirties or forties.

Dercum’s disease: This disease is most specific to the outgrowth of lipomas and is otherwise known as adiposis dolorosa. The lipomas caused in this disease are painful when pressed, probably because it has emerged near a nerve and is exerting pressure on it. The cause is unknown.

Madelung’s Disease: This disease is an abnormality which results in symmetric growth of lipomas in the areas of neck, trunk and shoulders. Most cases consist of males who have been under the abuse of alcohol for a long time, while non-alcoholic women also have a slight risk of developing this. These lipomas are not cancerous, but they do disfigure the body parts where they emerge. Madelung’s disease is still an unsolved case for physicians, with some calling it a malfunction of the endocrine system, while some say that it’s inherited from family members.