From foodconsumer.org
Obesity linked to higher risk of death in breast cancer patients
By David Liu, Ph. D.
Mar 14, 2008 - 3:05:14 PM
FRIDAY March 14, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in the March 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research showed women with breast cancer who were obese or overweight were less likely to survive and more likely to have the disease recur.
The fat tissue may increase inflammation that leads to more aggressive disease, explained Dr. Massimo Cristofanilli, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
The study of 606 women with breast cancer was meant to establish an association between body mass index and survival rates.
Cristofanilli and colleagues found the overall five-year survival was 56.8 percent among obese women, 56.3 percent among overweight women, compared to 67.4 percent among women with normal weight.
The 10-year survival rate was 42.7 percent among obese women, 41.8 percent among the overweight women compared to 56.5 percent in women with normal BMI.
Inflammatory breast cancer was more often found in obese and overweight women than in women with normal body weight at 45 percent, 30 percent and 15 percent respectively.
The recurrence rate was nearly 50 percent for the obese and overweight women, compared to 38.5 percent for normal weight women.
A health observer affiliated with foodconsumer.org said often times researchers consider obesity as an independent risk factor and forget about the effects of diet and lifestyle, which have a direct contribution to the risk of breast cancer.
He suggested that consumers should pay more attention to the diet and lifestyle than the body weight. When you follow a healthy lifestyle and diet, your body weight will be in the normal range, he said.
There are many things women can do to reduce their risk for breast cancer, for instance, having early child birth and breastfeeding, reducing meat, fat, sugar, alcohol and dairy products in their diet, increasing intake of plant-foods in their diet, avoiding radiation and medical estrogen and taking vitamin D among others.