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6 Replies Last post: Jul 17, 2006 4:26 PM by totaleffort

totaleffort

280 posts since
Feb 10, 2006

Jul 17, 2006 9:32 AM

Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

Note the article below that appeared today ( 17th) in the "BOSTON GLOBE " summarizing a study that was recently in JAMA . The focus apparently was the associated risk of breast cancer and being overweight / losing weight.

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Home > News > Boston Globe > Health / Science

Losing weight can help lower risk of breast cancer, study says
By Michelle Fay Cortez, Bloomberg News | July 17, 2006

Women can lower their risk of breast cancer by losing weight, particularly after menopause, says a study that's the first to focus on shedding fat as a method to protect against the deadly disease.

The researchers found that breast cancer may occur in about one in seven women because of the weight they gain as adults.

The risks rose to one in four among weight gainers who never used hormone replacement therapy, the study said.

``Weight is one of the few breast cancer risk factors that women can do something about," said lead author Heather Eliassen. ``Our study suggests it's never too late to lose weight to reduce breast cancer risk. The best advice would be to avoid gaining it in the first place."

Keeping a healthy weight has been linked to lower risks of high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and other heart-related disorders. This is the first research to show that staying thin can also protect against breast cancer, said Eliassen, an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School.

Eliassen's study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 200,000 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, according to the American Cancer Society. It's the most common cancer in women and the second leading killer after lung cancer, killing about 41,000 annually.

The increased risk came even from adding as little as 5 pounds, the study found, and rose in proportion with the scale. The good news was that losing weight appeared to be protective.

The researchers tracked the weight changes of 87,000 women who enrolled in the Nurses Health study starting in 1976, and compared the information to the number who developed invasive breast cancer in the next 24 to 26 years. In all, 4,393 cases of breast cancer were documented.

Those who gained 55 pounds since their 18th birthdays were 45 percent more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than those who stayed the same weight.

Women who lost 20 pounds after menopause and kept it off, however, cut their risk of cancer 57 percent compared with those who maintained their same weight, the researchers said.

cipher057

180 posts since
Feb 20, 2003

1. Jul 17, 2006 9:50 AM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

Question is...why? Is fat itself, somehow contributing to cancer? Do women who lose the weight have a lower risk because of a healthier diet, more exercise? Perhaps women who are thinner feel better about themselves and are under less stress?

Iontach

1,522 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

2. Jul 17, 2006 10:59 AM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

Question is: which breast cancer are we talking about here?

totaleffort

280 posts since
Feb 10, 2006

3. Jul 17, 2006 11:17 AM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Iontach:
Question is: which breast cancer are we talking about here?<HR>

------

Here is the abstract from JAMA :

Abstract 1 of 1
Adult Weight Change and Risk of Postmenopausal Breast Cancer
A. Heather Eliassen, ScD; Graham A. Colditz, MD, DrPH; Bernard Rosner, PhD; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Susan E. Hankinson, ScD

JAMA. 2006;296:193-201.

Context Endogenous hormones are a primary cause of breast cancer. Adiposity affects circulating hormones, particularly in postmenopausal women, and may be a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer.

Objective To assess the associations of adult weight change since age 18 years and since menopause with the risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women.

Design, Setting, and Participants Prospective cohort study within the Nurses' Health Study. A total of 87 143 postmenopausal women, aged 30 to 55 years and free of cancer, were followed up for up to 26 years (1976-2002) to assess weight change since age 18 years. Weight change since menopause was assessed among 49 514 women who were followed up for up to 24 years.

Main Outcome Measure Incidence of invasive breast cancer.

Results Overall, 4393 cases of invasive breast cancer were documented. Compared with those who maintained weight, women who gained 25.0 kg or more since age 18 years were at an increased risk of breast cancer (relative risk RR, 1.45; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.27-1.66; P<.001 for trend), with a stronger association among women who have never taken postmenopausal hormones (RR,1.98; 95% CI, 1.55-2.53). Compared with weight maintenance, women who gained 10.0 kg or more since menopause were at an increased risk of breast cancer (RR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.03-1.35; P = .002 for trend). Women who had never used postmenopausal hormones, lost 10.0 kg or more since menopause, and kept the weight off were at a lower risk than those who maintained weight (RR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.21-0.86; P = .01 for weight loss trend). Overall, 15.0% (95% CI, 12.8%-17.4%) of breast cancer cases in this population may be attributable to weight gain of 2.0 kg or more since age 18 years and 4.4% (95% CI, 3.6%-5.5%) attributable to weight gain of 2.0 kg or more since menopause. Among those who did not use postmenopausal hormones, the population attributable risks are 24.2% (95% CI, 19.8%-29.1%) for a weight gain since age 18 years and 7.6% (95% CI, 5.9%-9.7%) for weight gain since menopause.

Conclusions These data suggest that weight gain during adult life, specifically since menopause, increases the risk of breast cancer among postmenopausal women, whereas weight loss after menopause is associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer. Thus, in addition to other known benefits of healthy weight, our results provide another reason for women approaching menopause to maintain or lose weight, as appropriate.

Author Affiliations: Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Departments of Epidemiology (Drs Eliassen, Colditz, and Hankinson), Biostatistics (Dr Rosner), and Nutrition (Dr Willett) Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass.

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bigapplepie

2,636 posts since
Dec 14, 2007

4. Jul 17, 2006 1:58 PM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

Hey Totaleffort,

Your first posting states that losing weight can reduce the risk of breast cancer.

The JAMA report suggests gaining weight increases the risk of breast cancer.

Are these two seperate studies or the same one interpreted in two different ways?

Several studies have suggested that post menopausal weight gain increase the risk of breast cancer.

quote:<HR>
Among nearly 50,000 women who were followed for up to 24 years, about 15% of breast cancers could be attributed to weight gain of more than 2.0 kg (4.4 lbs) since age 18, wrote A. Heather Eliassen, Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Conversely, women who lost weight after menopause had a 57% lower relative risk (P=0.01) for breast cancer than women who maintained or gained weight, Dr. Eliassen and colleagues at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in the July 12 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association.

"An important finding from this study is that weight loss may reduce breast cancer risk, even if weight is not lost until after menopause," they added.

"Although these data suggest that it is never too late to lose weight to decrease risk, given the difficulty in losing weight, the emphasis must also remain on weight maintenance throughout adult life," they added. <HR>

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HSunshine

196 posts since
Sep 15, 2003

5. Jul 17, 2006 2:53 PM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

quote:<HR>Originally posted by bigapplepie:
Hey Totaleffort,

Your first posting states that losing weight can reduce the risk of breast cancer.

The JAMA report suggests gaining weight increases the risk of breast cancer.

Are these two seperate studies or the same one interpreted in two different ways?

Several studies have suggested that post menopausal weight gain increase the risk of breast cancer.

<HR>

Fantastic point. The study looked at both weight loss and gain:
"we observed a significant trend of decreased breast cancer risk with weight loss since age 18 years among all postmenopausal women. Weight loss in later life has not been extensively studied, with a few studies reporting null or nonsignificant inverse associations. To our knowledge, ours is the first study to show a significant decreased risk with weight loss after menopause for women who maintained their loss. Although there were few cases in the highest weight loss category, the trend of decreasing risk with more weight lost also was statistically significant. Given the low prevalence of weight loss after menopause in this study and the modest results of and low adherence to weight loss programs women should avoid weight gain throughout adult life rather than count on losing weight after menopause."

"Our findings of significant increased risks with gains both before and since menopause are consistent with 2 other studies with time-period analyses. Regardless of whether weight gain occurs before or after menopause, adipose tissue produces hormones after menopause; thus, women should be advised to avoid weight gain both before and after menopause to decrease their postmenopausal breast cancer risk."

It's a great study but you can't infer too much. Losing extra weight reduces the risk of many, many problems, but many women will get cancer regardless of weight.

I can post the whole article if anyone would like.

For cipher, here's what they say about mechanism:
"Hormones are directly related to breast cancer risk and weight likely affects risk, at least in part, through a hormonal pathway. snip Although the ovaries produce endogenous hormones in premenopausal women, ovarian hormone production declines after menopause and adipose tissue becomes the primary estrogen source by aromatization of adrenal androgens. Compared with normal weight postmenopausal women, those with higher BMI have 2-fold higher circulating estrogens and lower sex hormone?binding globulin levels, and thus more bioavailable estrogens. Weight reduction in postmenopausal women decreases circulating estrogen levels and increases sex hormone?binding globulin levels"

They didn't talk much about diet, but they did assess exercise, finding that exercise itself doesn't add anything - so if you lose weight it helps, no matter how you got there. Oh well, I'm still gonna run.

Curious that they really didn't talk about diet at all. I would really like to know more about those effects. But I suppose, with such a large study (87,143 women followed for 26 years), there's only so much you can do - you can't collect everything. The study was started in 1976, and diet wasn't such a hot topic then.

totaleffort

280 posts since
Feb 10, 2006

6. Jul 17, 2006 4:26 PM

in response to: totaleffort

Re: Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

BAP. One was GLOBE the other the abstact from JAMA.

Same study.

This was posted for informational purposes as I thought breast cancer / and weight might be of interest to the female posters.

Take the study for what it is but it is a large study and the authors have oustanding affiliations at B & W / H. Med.

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Jul 17, 2006 9:32 AM

Can losing weight reduce the risk of breast cancer?

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