Obesity Worsens Breast Cancer Prognosis

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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Breast cancer patients with a high body mass index (BMI) have a poorer cancer prognosis. The effects of their treatment do not last as long, and their risk of dying from the disease is greater.
 
A healthy, normal BMI score is between 20 and 25. "Overall, women should make an effort to keep their BMI less than 25," Marianne Ewertz, M.D., professor in the Department of Oncology at Odense University Hospital, Denmark, was quoted as saying. "Those who have a high BMI should be encouraged to participate in mammography screening programs for prevention efforts."

Ewertz and colleagues examined the influence of obesity on breast cancer recurrence and mortality in relation to adjuvant treatment. Using the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group database, they evaluated health information such as status at diagnosis, tumor size, malignancy grade, number of lymph nodes removed, estrogen receptor status and treatment regimen from almost 54,000 women. They were able to calculate BMI for 35 percent of the women.
 
After 30 years of follow-up, from 1977 through 2006, the researchers found that women with higher BMIs had more advanced disease at diagnosis compared with those who had a BMI within the normal range. The risk of distant metastases also increased with a higher BMI.

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Women with a high BMI had an increased risk of dying from breast cancer, a finding that remained constant over the study period. Further, adjuvant treatment seemed to lose its effect more rapidly in obese patients, according to Ewertz, who concluded, "More research is needed into the mechanisms behind the poorer response to adjuvant treatment among obese women with breast cancer."

SOURCE: Presented at the CTRC-AACR Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 9-13, 2009

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