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Risk of breast cancer high in obese Indian women: Study
Like their counterparts in the Western world, overweight Indian women too are prone to developing breast cancer, says a new study by the country’s premier health institute, AIIMS.
So far, increasing age probability, lack of childbearing or breast feeding, higher hormone levels, late age of menopause, smoking, and alcohol consumption were attributed to the breast cancer in the country. This is the first-of-its-kind study showing that overweight or obese Indian women are also vulnerable to the disease.
After evaluating the health data of 320 newly diagnosed cancer patients and health individuals each, a team of researchers found that the risk of breast cancer increased with increasing levels of Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is the standard medical method of assessing healthy weight, overweight and obesity. It uses height and weight data.
As many as 13.4 per cent of the total breast cancer patients diagnosed and 6.6 per cent of the healthy participants were found to be obese according to their BMI, observed the authors including Dr lP Singh, Dr Umesh Kapil, Dr NK Shukla, Dr SVS Deo and Dr SN Dwivedi, all from the AIIMS.
People with BMIs of below 25 are considered normal, while 25-29 marks overweight and 30 or above is clinically obese.
The researchers cautioned that obesity leads to increased levels of fat tissue in the body that can store toxins and can serve as a continuous source of carcinogens. Body fat is an important locus of endogenous estrogen production and storage, and hence, could increase the risk of breast cancer.
The study ‘Association of overweight and obesity with breast cancer in India’ which is published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Community Medicine further says that “there is considerable evidence that free estrogen levels are raised in obese women, especially in those with abdominal (visceral) obesity”.
Also, there is an increase in the bio-available estrogen fraction which may promote tumor growth, either directly or by modulating steroid activity and has been implicated as a risk factor for breast cancer, it adds.
In other words, says the study, the breast cancer patients had a statistically higher mean weight and BMI as compared to the controls. Obesity and weight gain are positively associated with serum concentrations of endogenous estrogens leading to moderate elevations in both the incidence and mortality from the disease, thus affecting cancer growth and metastasis.
In India, the number of new breast cancer cases is about 115,000 per year and this is expected to rise to 250,000 new cases per year by 2015.
Like their counterparts in the Western world, overweight Indian women too are prone to developing breast cancer, says a new study by the country’s premier health institute, AIIMS.
So far, increasing age probability, lack of childbearing or breast feeding, higher hormone levels, late age of menopause, smoking, and alcohol consumption were attributed to the breast cancer in the country. This is the first-of-its-kind study showing that overweight or obese Indian women are also vulnerable to the disease.
After evaluating the health data of 320 newly diagnosed cancer patients and health individuals each, a team of researchers found that the risk of breast cancer increased with increasing levels of Body Mass Index (BMI). BMI is the standard medical method of assessing healthy weight, overweight and obesity. It uses height and weight data.
As many as 13.4 per cent of the total breast cancer patients diagnosed and 6.6 per cent of the healthy participants were found to be obese according to their BMI, observed the authors including Dr lP Singh, Dr Umesh Kapil, Dr NK Shukla, Dr SVS Deo and Dr SN Dwivedi, all from the AIIMS.
People with BMIs of below 25 are considered normal, while 25-29 marks overweight and 30 or above is clinically obese.
The researchers cautioned that obesity leads to increased levels of fat tissue in the body that can store toxins and can serve as a continuous source of carcinogens. Body fat is an important locus of endogenous estrogen production and storage, and hence, could increase the risk of breast cancer.
The study ‘Association of overweight and obesity with breast cancer in India’ which is published in the latest issue of the Indian Journal of Community Medicine further says that “there is considerable evidence that free estrogen levels are raised in obese women, especially in those with abdominal (visceral) obesity”.
Also, there is an increase in the bio-available estrogen fraction which may promote tumor growth, either directly or by modulating steroid activity and has been implicated as a risk factor for breast cancer, it adds.
In other words, says the study, the breast cancer patients had a statistically higher mean weight and BMI as compared to the controls. Obesity and weight gain are positively associated with serum concentrations of endogenous estrogens leading to moderate elevations in both the incidence and mortality from the disease, thus affecting cancer growth and metastasis.
In India, the number of new breast cancer cases is about 115,000 per year and this is expected to rise to 250,000 new cases per year by 2015.
