The Advantage of Being Thin or Losing Weight

The Advantage of Being Thin or Losing Weight in Foods and Breast Cancer Survival - How Foods Fight Cancer

One of the best-established factors affecting breast cancer survival is body
weight. Women with breast cancer who are near their ideal body weight at
the time of diagnosis are more likely to survive than are women with higher
body weights. In a 2002 review of twenty-six studies published since 1990
on body weight and cancer recurrence or decreased survival in women previously
diagnosed with breast cancer, seventeen studies showed that higher
body weight was associated with increased risk; seven studies showed no
relationship; and two showed an inverse relationship between body weight
and risk.2 Overall, the body of evidence supports a relationship between
higher body weights and poor outcomes.

The relationship may hold even among relatively thin women. A 2006
study from Shanghai, China, studied the relationship between body mass
index (BMI) and survival in 1,455 women aged twenty-five to sixty-four who
had previously been diagnosed with breast cancer.3 For reference, a healthy
BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9 kg/m2. Women with a BMI below 23 had a fiveyear
survival rate of 86.5 percent. Those who were slightly heavier, with a BMI
of 23.00–24.99, had a slightly lower five-year survival rate of 83.8 percent.
Those with a BMI of 25 or greater had a five-year survival of 80.1 percent.

Although weight gain often occurs after diagnosis, studies suggest that
women who avoid weight gain after diagnosis tend to have longer, diseasefree
survival.2

The link between lower body weight and better survival may relate to
estrogens, female sex hormones that can encourage the growth of cancer cells.
In essence, body fat acts like an estrogen factory, producing estrogens from
other compounds coming from the adrenal glands (small organs situated atop
each kidney). As a result, women with more body fat tend to have higher
amounts of estrogens circulating in their blood compared to leaner women.