Excess weight increases risk of breast cancer

A new study showed the direct connection of weight and severity of breast cancer. The more you gain weight, the more severe, aggressive and fatal the disease is.

Photo: Excess weight increases risk of breast cancer

The study, conducted by Dr Massimo Cristofanilli, associate professor of medicine in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Centre, was concentrated on examination of corpulent women with locally advanced breast cancer.

Researchers found out that fat tissue may intensify inflammation thus leading cancer to its crucial stage and increasing the risk of fatal outcome.

606 women who participated in the study were divided in 3 groups according to the body mass index. The first group consisted of normal/underweight with 24.9 or below BMI, the second group was comprised of those having overweight with at least 25 but less than 30 BMI. The third group was the critical one – there were women with BMI more than 30.

Five years of thorough scrutiny showed the following results: obese women revealed 56.8 per cent of overall survival, overweight women had 56.3 per cent and normal weight women showed 67.4 per cent while the 10-year survival rate was 42.7 per cent among obese women, 41.8 per cent among overweight women and 56.5 per cent among normal weight women.

The contiguous data revealed that the rate of inflammatory breast cancer constituted 45 per cent among obese women in comparison with 30 per cent in overweight women and only 15 per cent in normal weight women.

To conclude it turned out that the risk of breast cancer recurrence was also higher among obese women.

The newly achieved results can raise concerns about possible drug treatment, as the latter may pose risk of weight gain thus leading to deterioration rather than to improvement.