For the study, researchers evaluated 4,381 patients with stage II or stage III colon cancer who had received adjuvant chemotherapy in clinical trials. Twenty percent of the patients were obese.
"Obesity has long been established as a risk factor for cancer, but our study in colon cancer patients shows that obesity predicts a poorer prognosis after the cancer is surgically removed," said researcher Frank A. Sinicrope, M.D., a professor of medicine and oncology at the Mayo Clinic.
The study also found that the link between obesity and a poor prognosis was more pronounced in men than in women.
"We do not know if this is due to biology or the way we measure obesity," Sinicrope said. "Body mass index is a limited measure and there is evidence that abdominal fat may be a better predictor of colon cancer risk and perhaps prognosis in men than in women. There is also the potential influence of menopausal status and hormone replacement therapy in women."
Labels: health problems, cancer
Posted By: Aspen/CRC
