Body mass index and survival of patients with lymphoma

Abstract

The impact of body mass index (BMI) on survival in lymphoma remains controversial. We leveraged a prospective cohort of lymphoma patients enrolled to SPORE Molecular Epidemiology Resource between 2002 and 2015 to assess the association of BMI before diagnosis, BMI at diagnosis, and BMI change over time with lymphoma-specific survival (LSS). A total of 4009 lymphoma patients (670 diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), 689 follicular lymphoma (FL), 1018 chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), and 1632 other subtypes) were included. Significantly shorter LSS after diagnosis was observed for FL patients who were obese before diagnosis (HR: 3.02, 95%CI: 1.43–6.41, p=.004) and for those with a ≥ 5% increase in BMI from diagnosis to 3-year follow-up (HR: 3.53, 95%CI: 1.22–10.2, p=.020). In contrast, obesity prior to or at the time of diagnosis was not associated with LSS in DLBCL and CLL/SLL. The impact of weight control after diagnosis in FL patient warrants investigation.

Keywords:

• Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• follicular lymphoma
• CLL/SLL
• body mass index
• survival

Author contributions

C.R.F., B.K.L and J.R.C. designed the research. D.C. and L.M.M. performed the research and wrote draft of the paper. M.C.L., D.P.R., C.A.T, M.J.M., C.C., P.P., T.M.H. and A.L.F. contributed essential role in establishing and providing the data. All authors contributed to finalize the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by Lymphoma SPORE, Grant/Award Number: CA0972474.