Cancer recurrence linked to weight

Piling on the pounds increases the chances of breast cancer returning after treatment, a study has shown.

Women who put on a lot of weight after diagnosis were 14 per cent more likely to suffer a potentially fatal recurrence of the disease, US scientists discovered.

The association was only seen in women who experienced “large weight gain”, defined as a weight increase of 10 per cent or more.

It did not apply to women who gained a “moderate” amount of weight, within five per cent of what they tipped the scales at before diagnosis.

The trend applied both to women who started off heavy and those who were not overweight before getting cancer.

In fact, women who were leaner to begin with were most at risk. A normal-weight woman who gained 10 per cent or more after diagnosis had a 25 per cent higher risk of dying from her disease than one whose weight remained stable.

“Most women are not gaining a large amount of weight following breast cancer diagnosis,” said lead researcher Bette Caan, from the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California.