Demi
Thu, Apr-17-08, 00:35
The Telegraph
London, UK
17 April, 2008
Obese women '50pc more likely to die of breast cancer'
Significantly overweight women are almost 50 per cent more likely to die of breast cancer within five years of diagnosis, experts warned yesterday.
Doctors at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin warned that it was more difficult to diagnose the disease in obese patients who also risked getting poorer treatment because doctors feared giving them a high enough dose of chemotherapy for their body weight.
Almost 1,500 patients a year in the UK could be diagnosed earlier if they were not obese, research at the conference suggests. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women, and almost 45,000 cases are diagnosed in the UK every year, around 9,000 in clinically obese patients.
However, that percentage is predicted to increase because of lifestyle factors that have led to a quarter of women being diagnosed as obese.
Obesity has previously been shown to increase the risk of developing the disease, by raising the level of sex hormones such as oestrogen.
Professor Emiel Rutgers, a from the Netherland Cancer Institute and a breast cancer surgeon, said the findings showed "the importance of losing weight, even after you have been diagnosed".
Doctors in Belgium monitored 547 breast cancer patients over five years. They found that those defined as obese, who had a body mass index - weight in kilograms divided by their height in metres squared - of more than 30, were 48 per cent more likely to have died than slim or underweight patients.
Patients who were not obese had an 12 per cent chance of dying within the five years of the study, but that rose to 17 per cent for obese patients, researchers found.
Dr Evandro de Azambuja, from the Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, who led the study, said that part of the problem was that the majority of obese patients received a standard dose of chemotherapy, which doctors were afraid to increase in line with their height and weight.
Separate research published at the conference showed that obese women were 80 per cent more likely to be in the later stages of the disease by the time they were diagnosed.
Dr Elisabetta Rapiti, from the Geneva Cancer Registry, who led this study, said it was more difficult to diagnose cancer in fatty tissue.
Obese patients also face delays because their weight made them too embarrassed to visit a doctor, she added.
Professor Gordon McVie, editor of ecancer, an online journal, and the former chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said new ways of dealing with breast cancer in obese patients were needed.
He said: "Although we know about the link between breast cancer and obesity, the higher risk of death is surprising. Maybe a new strategy to deal with these patients is needed."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/17/nhealth217.xml
London, UK
17 April, 2008
Obese women '50pc more likely to die of breast cancer'
Significantly overweight women are almost 50 per cent more likely to die of breast cancer within five years of diagnosis, experts warned yesterday.
Doctors at the 6th European Breast Cancer Conference in Berlin warned that it was more difficult to diagnose the disease in obese patients who also risked getting poorer treatment because doctors feared giving them a high enough dose of chemotherapy for their body weight.
Almost 1,500 patients a year in the UK could be diagnosed earlier if they were not obese, research at the conference suggests. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women, and almost 45,000 cases are diagnosed in the UK every year, around 9,000 in clinically obese patients.
However, that percentage is predicted to increase because of lifestyle factors that have led to a quarter of women being diagnosed as obese.
Obesity has previously been shown to increase the risk of developing the disease, by raising the level of sex hormones such as oestrogen.
Professor Emiel Rutgers, a from the Netherland Cancer Institute and a breast cancer surgeon, said the findings showed "the importance of losing weight, even after you have been diagnosed".
Doctors in Belgium monitored 547 breast cancer patients over five years. They found that those defined as obese, who had a body mass index - weight in kilograms divided by their height in metres squared - of more than 30, were 48 per cent more likely to have died than slim or underweight patients.
Patients who were not obese had an 12 per cent chance of dying within the five years of the study, but that rose to 17 per cent for obese patients, researchers found.
Dr Evandro de Azambuja, from the Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, who led the study, said that part of the problem was that the majority of obese patients received a standard dose of chemotherapy, which doctors were afraid to increase in line with their height and weight.
Separate research published at the conference showed that obese women were 80 per cent more likely to be in the later stages of the disease by the time they were diagnosed.
Dr Elisabetta Rapiti, from the Geneva Cancer Registry, who led this study, said it was more difficult to diagnose cancer in fatty tissue.
Obese patients also face delays because their weight made them too embarrassed to visit a doctor, she added.
Professor Gordon McVie, editor of ecancer, an online journal, and the former chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said new ways of dealing with breast cancer in obese patients were needed.
He said: "Although we know about the link between breast cancer and obesity, the higher risk of death is surprising. Maybe a new strategy to deal with these patients is needed."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/17/nhealth217.xml