Study: Weight Gain Plays Role in Breast Cancer

Women who don’t gain weight after being diagnosed with breast cancer increase their chances of survival, Hub researchers found.

“This study found that women who gained weight after their breast cancer diagnosis had a higher risk of the breast cancer coming back or of dying of breast cancer than women who did not gain weight after diagnosis,” said Dr. Wendy Chen, an oncologist and epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School.

The study, done by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, looked at 5,024 women with breast cancer who were between 30 and 55 years old when they enrolled in the study in 1976. During 25 years of follow-up, 533 women died of breast cancer and 681 had the breast cancer come back.

Women who gained substantial weight after being diagnosed, had more than a 50 percent greater risk of death or recurrence.

Their risk of death or recurrence went up with increasing weight gain.

The study appears in the online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.