The Obesity and the Risk of Breast Cancer among Pre and Postmenopausal Women

Gravena, Angela Andréia França; Romeiro Lopes, Tiara; Demitto, Marcela De Oliveira; Borghesan, Deise Helena Pelloso; Dell’ Agnolo, Cátia Millene; Brischiliari, Sheila Cristina Rocha; Carvalho, Maria Dalva De Barros; Pelloso, Sandra Marisa

doi:10.22034/APJCP.2018.19.9.2429

The Obesity and the Risk of Breast Cancer among Pre and Postmenopausal Women

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

¹ Department of Health Science, Maringa State University.Av. Colombo 5790, Jd. University, Maringa, Parana, Brazil.

² Department of Nursing, Maringa State University.Av. Colombo 5790, Jd. University, Maringa, Parana, Brazil.

³ University Hospital of Maringa, Maringa State University.Av. Colombo 5790, Jd. University, Maringa, Parana, Brazil.

⁴ Department of Medicine, Maringa State University.Av. Colombo 5790, Jd. University, Maringa, Parana, Brazil.

10.22034/APJCP.2018.19.9.2429

Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide and the obesity is one of
the factors related to the risk of breast cancer mainly in postmenopausal women. This study investigated the association
between obesity in pre- and postmenopausal women with the development of breast cancer and the expression of
estrogen, progesterone, HeR-2 and triple-negative (TN) receptors. Methods: A case-control study was conducted
on 100 patients with recently diagnosed breast cancer and 400 age-matched controls. The women were divided into
pre- and post-menopausal groups. Results: The multivariate analysis showed that postmenopausal women with
a BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 at pre-diagnosis and at the most recent measurement were 1.50 (95% CI 1.06-2.13) and 1.56
(95% CI 1.11-2.21) times more likely to develop breast cancer, respectively. These women had a prevalence of
obesity of 27.7% when considering pre-diagnosis BMI and 29.4% when analyzing the indicator of recent BMI. When
only the cases regarding the presence of obesity with clinicopathological variables were analyzed, a total of 95.2% of
the postmenopausal women with pre-diagnostic obesity according to BMI presented the positive estrogen receptor
(ER) subtype. Conclusions: In Brazilian women, there is an association between obesity and the risk of breast cancer
postmenopause; moreover, there is an association between the occurrence of the positive ER subtype in postmenopausal
women and pre-diagnostic obesity according to BMI.

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