Breast cancer risk increases in overweight

Increased breast cancer risk in overweight

12/09/2012

Obesity worsens the prognosis in breast cancer. This has now been confirmed by studies. Recurrence is more common and mortality rates are higher than those of normal weight women. Now a research team has discovered that this is only true for hormone receptor-positive tumors.

Doctors at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York have evaluated three studies. They wanted to know if obesity has a different influence on the disease depending on the type of breast cancer.

One study included 4,770 women, one-third of whom were normal weight, overweight and obese. 73 percent had hormone receptor positive tumors and 20 percent had HER-2 / neu positive tumors. All were operated on and treated with standard adjuvant chemotherapy.

Disease-free survival was 24 percent in obese women and 37 percent lower in overall survival than in women with BMI below 30. In contrast, adipose women with triple negative tumor status or HER-2 / neu-positive tumors had no disadvantage compared to normal and overweight patients.

These results were confirmed by one of the other two studies. The third study, involving 613 women with hormone receptor-negative status, found that the obese patients live longer. However, these results were not statistically significant compared to the other two studies. So it can not be concluded that extreme overweight is beneficial in hormone receptor negative status. (BDH)

Picture: S. Hofschlaeger