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The way one reads the passage below,
it appears to imply that Quetelet's index is the imperial form of
BMI. I haven't found any proof of this but maybe someone here could
elaborate.
Euric
Obesity Impairs Survival In Early Breast Cancer
By Anthony J. Brown, MD
NEW YORK OCT 06, 2004 (Reuters Health) - Previous reports have shown that
obesity increases the risk of breast cancer
- and now new research suggests that obesity continues to have an adverse effect
after such malignancies are diagnosed.
Obese women with early-stage breast cancer
are more likely than their normal weight peers to die from their cancer and to
have metastases, according to findings presented Wednesday at the 46th annual
meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology
in Atlanta.
"Obesity is linked with the development of breast cancer," lead author Dr.
Penny R. Anderson, from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, told
Reuters Health. "Our study and others go on to show that breast cancer
outcomes are less than optimal for women who are obese."
The findings are based on a study of 2010 women with stage
I/II breast cancer who were treated with lumpectomy, axillary
dissection, and radiotherapy with or without systemic therapy between 1978 and
2003. The subjects were divided into a normal
weight, overweight, or obese group based on their Quetelet's index, a measure of
BMI that uses English rather than metric units.
Women in the obese group were more likely to be older and postmenopausal than
women in the other groups, the authors note.
The size of the primary tumor
and the number of involved lymph
nodes did not differ significantly between the groups. Still, the
overall and cause-specific 5-year survival rates seen in the obese group -- 88%
and 93%, respectively -- were slightly, but significantly lower than the rates
seen in the other groups.
Multivariate analysis identified obesity as a significant independent
predictor of distant metastasis
and worse cause-specific survival.
As to how obesity worsens breast cancer outcomes, Dr. Anderson said that the
mechanisms are unclear, but may involve "effects on circulating estrogen
levels and hormone metabolism." |
