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Fats for Older Women Mean More Risk for Breast Cancer


Wed 12 Dec 2018 | 03:18 PM
Yassmine Elsayed

By: Yassmine ElSayed

CAIRO, Dec. 12 (SEE) – A recent study warned older women with excess body fat, even if they have what's considered a normal body-mass index, that they are exposed to greater risk for breast cancer.

According to the study published in the medical journal JAMAOncology, there is a link between excess body fat in those who are post-menopausal (with a normal body mass index) and about a doubling in the risk of estrogen-dependent breast cancer.

The American Cancer Society says estrogen-dependent cancers,called ER-positive breast cancer in the study, occur when the receptor proteins in or on cells attach to the hormone estrogen and rely on it to grow.

Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, one of the study's authors and director of cancer prevention at the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine, said that the study involved 3,460 American women between the ages of 50 and 79 who had gone through menopause.

They found that a 5-kilogram (11-pound) increase in whole-body fat mass was associated with a 35% increased risk of this kind of breast cancer. A 5-kilogram increase in fat mass of the trunk was associated with a 56% increase in risk.

Trunk fat is "defined by the fat contained in the torso a part from head and limbs," according to the study.

The study also found that for invasive breast cancer, which has spread into the surrounding breast tissue, a 5-kilogram increase in whole-body fat mass was related to a 28% risk increase. The same increase in trunk fat was tied to a 46% increase in the risk of invasive breast cancer.

A person's BMI is calculated through a formula involving their height and weight; a "normal" BMI is considered to be between18.5 and 24.9, according to the study.

The researchers also looked at blood data taken at the start of the Women's Health Initiative for other factors that are known to play apart in the development of breast cancer, such as elevation of insulin molecules.