Correlation of Obesity with Breast Cancer Stages

Abstract

Introduction:

Breast cancer is the most commun cancer and heterogenous disease in women worldwide.

Obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) ⩾ 30 kg/m2, is a recognized risk factor for the development of breast cancer and recurrence.

The main objective of our study was to evaluate the association between obesity and later stages of breast cancer at diagnosis.

Material and methods:

This was a transverse study included 481 patients with breast cancer, carried out over a period of one year from early January 2014 to end December 2014 and conducted in the medical oncology department at the National Institute of Oncology of Rabat – Morocco.

The BMI of patients was measured and the relation of obesity to the stage of breast cancer was determined.

The SPSS 10.0 software was used for statistical analysis : khi-two for the analysis of correlation.

Results:

For the 481 patients, the average age at diagnosis was 48,9 years [24 - 84]. The mean BMI was 28,32 kg/m2 [17,1 – 47,2]. Stage I, II, III and IV breast cancer were diagnosed in 11,9 %, 44,8%, 36% and 7,3% respectively. Overall, 37, 5% of patients were obese.

The percentage of obese patients in each tumor stage at diagnosis was: 26,3% in stage I, 40,5% in stage II, 38,8% in stage III and 31,4% in stage IV.

There was no significant relation between obesity and the stage of breast cancer at diagnosis.

Conclusion:

In breast cancer, the impact of weight on tumor aggressiveness is still controversial.

In our study of the Moroccan patients, obesity does not influence the tumor stage at diagnosis.

Therefore, broad prospective studies are needed to better identify the risk factors in breast cancer development.