Apr 11, 2009 8:16 am US/Eastern
Breast Cancer And Obesity: An Update
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
The effect of obesity on breast cancer risk depends on a woman's menopausal status.
Researchers suggest that women should be advised to avoid weight gain during adulthood to decrease their postmenopausal breast cancer risk.
In 2003, Marina Wilchek discovered she had multiple growths on her thyroid and had to have it surgically removed. That's when she began to struggle with increasing weight. "In a very short period of time I gained about 100 pounds," Wilchek said.
Studies in 2000 and 2001 led experts at the National Cancer Institute to conclude that the effect of obesity on breast cancer risk depends on a woman's menopausal status.
Before menopause, obese women have a lower risk of breast cancer. After menopause, obese women had 1.5 times the risk of getting breast cancer than leaner women.
Bariatric surgeon Dr. Paul Wizman says newer studies are not based on menopause but rather on weight loss surgery.
"In a recent article, in the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Journal, a study on bariatric surgery and its effects on cancers, what they found was that the risk of breast cancer after bariatric surgery, given 5 years, was 2 percent," explained Dr. Wizman of the Wellington Surgical Weight Reduction Center.
"The risk of having breast cancer if you did not have bariatric surgery, in other words stayed obese, was 8%. So the reduction was quite staggering," he added.
Wilchek had bariatric surgery and lost 125 pounds. She feels a lot better but she worries that her partner, Michelle Steiber, is still at increased risk. Steiber was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002 and went through treatment twice.
"I'm looking at my risk factors between all my other health issues and my breast cancer; I really want to lose weight," said Steiber. "I have tried and tried and my insurance won't cover bariatric. So, now I'm still trying on my own, but it's very hard. It's been a life-long struggle."
It's a battle that studies show will be worth winning now rather than later.
For more information on breast cancer, log on The Susan G. Komen For The Cure.
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