Cancer subtype connected to weight
Source: Agencies |
March 3, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SCIENTISTS know that being overweight increases the risk of breast cancers fed by estrogen, but being too fat may also increase the risk of triple-negative breast cancers, a less common and far more deadly type, according to American researchers.
They said women who are overweight had a 35 percent higher risk of developing triple-negative breast cancers, an aggressive form of cancer that affects 10 to 20 percent of cases.
"The fact that we found an association with triple-negative breast cancer is unique because, biologically, this subtype is very different from other breast cancers," said Amanda Phipps of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Philadelphia, whose study appears in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Most breast tumors are called estrogen-receptor positive because they are fueled by the hormone estrogen. About 20 percent are HER2-positive, because a protein called HER2 is involved. A third type is driven by the hormone progesterone.
These types of cancer can easily be treated.
Then there are triple-negative tumors, so named because they lack estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors needed for most breast cancer drugs to work.
For her study, Phipps and colleagues analyzed data from the 155,723 women. They studied body mass index and physical activity among the 307 women who had triple negative breast cancer and the 2,610 women who had -estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers.
BMI is equal to weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.
Phipps and colleagues found that women with the highest BMI in the study had a 35 percent higher risk of triple-negative breast cancers, and a 39 percent higher risk of estrogen-fed breast cancers.
They said women who are overweight had a 35 percent higher risk of developing triple-negative breast cancers, an aggressive form of cancer that affects 10 to 20 percent of cases.
"The fact that we found an association with triple-negative breast cancer is unique because, biologically, this subtype is very different from other breast cancers," said Amanda Phipps of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Philadelphia, whose study appears in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Most breast tumors are called estrogen-receptor positive because they are fueled by the hormone estrogen. About 20 percent are HER2-positive, because a protein called HER2 is involved. A third type is driven by the hormone progesterone.
These types of cancer can easily be treated.
Then there are triple-negative tumors, so named because they lack estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors needed for most breast cancer drugs to work.
For her study, Phipps and colleagues analyzed data from the 155,723 women. They studied body mass index and physical activity among the 307 women who had triple negative breast cancer and the 2,610 women who had -estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers.
BMI is equal to weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.
Phipps and colleagues found that women with the highest BMI in the study had a 35 percent higher risk of triple-negative breast cancers, and a 39 percent higher risk of estrogen-fed breast cancers.
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