Obesity and breast cancer – what’s new?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Obesity rates are increasing in the developed and developing world; this has implications for breast cancer risk and outcome.

Areas covered: Recent advances relating to the association of obesity with breast cancer are reviewed.

Expert commentary: Obesity has been associated with increased risk of postmenopausal hormone receptor positive and premenopausal triple negative breast cancer and with poor prognosis of most types of breast cancer. Obese individuals may present with breast cancer at a more advanced stage and their breast cancer may differ biologically from cancers diagnosed in nonobese women. A picture of a complex, multifactorial biology underlying the obesity-cancer link is emerging, with the identification of obesity-associated tissue and systemic changes that are cancer promoting, enhancing proliferation, invasion and metastasis. Intervention research to ascertain effects of weight loss and of pharmacologic interventions that reverse the metabolic changes of obesity is needed.

KEYWORDS:

• Obesity
• BMI
• breast cancer
• risk prognosis
• metabolic profile
• insulin
• inflammation
• biology

Declaration of interest

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

PJ Goodwin’s work is supported by The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (United States) and Hold’Em for Life (Canada).