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Abstract
Weight gain during breast cancer treatment has not been explained yet. This study aimed to explore eating experience and its relationship with weight gain and sweet preference and intake in women in chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. Thirty-one patients indicated for adjuvant (n = 16) or neoadjuvant (n = 15) chemotherapy containing anthracyclines were evaluated. Weight, sweet preference in cashew juice (weight/volume, 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36%), and sweet food intake frequency [“healthy sweets” (HS) for fruits and natural juices and “nonhealthy sweets” (NHS) for other sweets] were assessed prior to initiating (T0) and after the fourth chemotherapy cycle (T1). A semistructured interview was applied at T1. At baseline, patients were 46.7 ± 11.6 years old and the mean body mass index (BMI) was 29.3 ± 7.1 kg/m2. The patients’ weight and BMI increased, as did the HS intake, with positive correlation between HS intake and weight change (r = 0.38; P = 0.039). Baseline sweet preference is correlated to NHS intake at T0 (r = 0.51; P = 0.004) and influences NHS intake change. The interview analysis showed opposite food behaviors: at times driven by self-care and, at other times, driven by the emotional vulnerability, which may contribute to the weight gain observed.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the productivity grant given to RW Diez-Garcia. We would like to express our appreciaton to Prof. Dr. Helio Humberto Angotti Carrara and Prof. Dr. Anderson Marliere Navarro for their assistence; to the patients who participated; and to Camila de Souza Meirelles and Lucas Vieira Francisco for their help in the triangulation analysis of qualitative data.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.