Maintaining weight after age 40 increases breast cancer survival
| September 19, 2007 | |
| Women sometimes feel there’s nothing they can do to improve their chances of survival after a breast cancer diagnosis. But there is, according to scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and other institutions. Don’t gain weight after age 40.
A new study shows premenopausal women who gain more than 35 pounds after age 20 — prior to breast cancer diagnosis — are two times less likely to survive the disease. And postmenopausal women who gain more than 29 pounds after age 50 are nearly three times less likely to survive. Maintaining weight was not associated with the increased risk. “Our results demonstrate the importance of weight management, particularly during the perimenopausal and postmenopausal years. Weight gain between the ages of 40 and 50 in particular substantially decreases the likelihood of surviving breast cancer,” said lead study author Rebecca Cleveland, Ph.D., research assistant professor of nutrition in the UNC School of Public Health. “Since the number of women surviving breast cancer continues to rise globally, identifying a modifiable risk factor is important information for women,” she said. The results were reported in the Sept. 2007 issue of the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Study results came from an analysis of 1,098 of the 1,508 women diagnosed with breast cancer who participated in the Long Island Breast Cancer Study Project, a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration to identify environmental risk factors for the disease. The Long Island study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. 
Photograph of Dr. Marilie Gammon
“We have known for some time that obesity at the time of a diagnosis of breast cancer increases the risk of dying from the disease,” said Marilie Gammon, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UNC School of Public Health and senior study author. “Few studies have explored whether weight gain leading up to diagnosis can influence survival after a breast cancer diagnosis.” She is a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and principal investigator for the study. Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30. BMI, calculated from a person’s weight and height, provides a reliable indicator of fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems. Other institutions involved in the study are Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Wash.; Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York; Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York; and Pfizer Inc. in New York.
Note: Cleveland may be reached at 919-843-5255 or becki@unc.edu. Gammon maybe reached at 919-966-7421 or gammon@unc.edu. School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu. Lineberger Center contact: Dianne Shaw, (919) 966-7834 or dgs@med.unc.edu. News Services contact: Becky Oskin, (919) 962-8596 or becky_oskin@unc.edu. |
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