Prospective Study on Body Composition, Energy Balance and Biological Factors Changes in Post-menopausal Women with Breast Cancer Receiving Adjuvant Chemotherapy Including Taxanes

Abstract

In breast cancer patients, weight and fat mass changes observed after chemotherapy have been related to poor prognosis but some recent works using modern chemotherapy failed to find this correlation with weight gain. In this study, the extent of changes in weight and body composition (DEXA, impedance) was characterized until six months after current chemotherapy, in 50 post-menopausal women with breast cancer. The evolution of factors contributing to the energy balance and some biological factors were also described. During chemotherapy, 20% of women lost weight due to both fat (−13.1% ± 10.3) and lean soft tissue mass loss (−3.6% ± 4.6). Twenty percent of women gained weight. No significant fat mass gain was observed in these women but significant water gain was highlighted. Six months later, women who gained weight presented a gain in fat mass (15.4% ± 19.0), especially in the abdominal region. Age and initial BMI were negatively correlated with fat mass in multivariate analyzes (r = 0.486, P = 0.0030). No significant variation of the glucose homeostasis, triglycerides, and HDL-Cholesterol was found six months after chemotherapy. These results do not suggest major adverse metabolic disturbances six months after modern chemotherapy and only a mild fat mass gain was observed in women who gained weight.

Acknowledgments

We thank Chrystèle Jouve and Brigitte Laillet for performing biological analyses and Stéphane Penando for helping with muscular strength measures. We are grateful to Salomé Véret for performing the nutritional analysis. This work was supported by Ligue Contre le Cancer (Puy-de-Dôme & Cantal), PARCC-ARA, and Les Thermes de Brides-les-bains.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We also thank Clinical Research Unit from the Center Jean Perrin (Clermont-Ferrand, France), the CHLEO team (INRA, Human Nutrition Unit, Clermont-Ferrand, France) and the CRNH (Clermont-Ferrand, France) for financial and/or technical support.