New research suggests that breast cancer survivors are more likely to gain weight at a higher rate than cancer-free women.
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers found that breast cancer survivors with a family history of the disease, including those who carry BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, gained more weight over the course of four years than those who were not diagnosed with the disease -- especially if they were treated with chemotherapy, UPI reported.
"Our study suggests that chemotherapy may be one of the factors contributing to weight gain among survivors," Kala Visvanathan, researcher and director of the Clinical Cancer Genetics and Prevention Service at the Kimmel Cancer Center, said in a statement."There is limited data on weight change in breast cancer survivors, including those at higher risk for the disease compared to the general population."
For the study, the researchers collected and analyzed data from more than 303 breast cancer survivors and 307 cancer-free women. Study participants completed a baseline and at least one follow-up questionnaire between 2005 and 2013, and one-quarter of the subjects were premenopausal.
After their analysis, they found that women diagnosed within the last five years prior were twice as likely "to have gained at least 11 pounds during the course of their follow-up compared to survivors diagnosed more than 5 years earlier," Medpage Today reported.
They also found that recent survivors diagnosed within five years before their baseline weight measurement and who had invasive disease and cancer cells lacking receptors for estrogen gained an average of 7.26 pounds more than cancer-free women.
"Above and beyond age and menopausal status, there seems to be a weight gain associated with treatment of cancer, particularly in women having chemotherapy and those diagnosed with estrogen receptor-negative, invasive cancers," researcher Amy Gross said in a statement.
The findings are detailed in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
