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Obesity linked to poor colon cancer prognosis
Source: (cancerfacts.com)
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
PHILADELPHIA – March 9, 2010 – Obese patients with colon cancer are at greater risk for death or recurrent disease compared to those who are within a normal weight range, according to a report in Clinical Cancer Research.
Led by Dr. Frank A. Sinicrope, professor of medicine and oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the researchers evaluated the outcomes of more than 4,000 patients with colon cancer who had been treated with surgery and chemotherapy.
"Obesity has long been established as a risk factor for cancer, but our study in colon cancer patients shows that obesity predicts a poorer prognosis after the cancer is surgically removed," Sinicrope said in a prepared statement.
For the current study, Sinicrope and colleagues evaluated 4,381 patients with stage II or stage III colon cancer who had received adjuvant chemotherapy in clinical trials. Of these patients, 20 percent were obese.
Among the 4,381 colon cancer patients, 868 (20%) were obese based with a body mass index of 30 or more. Among these 868 patients, 262 were morbidly obese (BMI, 35 kg/m2) weighing more than 223 lbs for a 5 foot, 7 inch man. The results showed that these people had a 35 percent lower overall survival rate compared to patients with a BMI in the normal range.
"We do not know if this is due to biology or the way we measure obesity," said Sinicrope. "Body mass index is a limited measure and there is evidence that abdominal fat may be a better predictor of colon cancer risk and perhaps prognosis in men than in women. There is also the potential influence of menopausal status and hormone replacement therapy in women."
Many patients remain unaware of the risk associated with obesity and cancer, according to results of a recent survey from the American Institute for Cancer Research. The survey showed that only 51 percent of the participants knew about the link between obesity and cancer, compared with 94 percent who were aware of the increased cancer risk associated with tobacco use, and 87 percent who knew of the increased cancer risk associated with sun exposure.
SOURCE: adapted from press materials provided by the American Association for Cancer Research regarding: Clin Cancer Res1078-0432.CCR-09-2636; Published Online First March 9, 2010, doi:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-09-2636
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