Breast Cancer News:

Lifetime Weight Gain Ups Breast Cancer Risk for Postmenopausal Women

The weight a woman gains over the course of her life and her waist-hip ratio may be risk factors for developing postmenopausal breast cancer, according to Canadian researchers.

Researchers at the Alberta Cancer Board in Calgary compared several body measurement factors of 1,233 women with breast cancer with those of 1,237 healthy controls between 1995 and 1997 to examine the influence of these factors on the risk of breast cancer.

No body measurement factors were predictive of the risk of breast cancer in women who were premenopausal, according to the study published in the International Journal of Cancer.

But postmenopausal women who gained 49 pounds or more after age 20 were 35 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than women who gained less than 17 pounds.

The most significant risk factor for breast cancer was the difference between maximum and minimum weights over a woman's lifetime. Women with a difference of at least 44 pounds were 56 percent more likely to develop cancer than those with a difference of less than 15 pounds.

The linkage between body measurement factors and breast cancer was strongest in women who had never used hormone replacement therapy.

Source: Breast Cancer Week of June 2, 2002