Breast-cancer rates spike in older, plumper women

NEW YORK: Older women who carry some extra body fat may face a heightened risk of breast cancer – even if their weight is normal, a new study has found.

“This suggests women should not just concentrate on weight,” said Mia Gaudet, strategic director of breast and gynaecological cancer research for the American Cancer Society.

“Instead, they should focus on doing things that can help reduce body fat levels – like a healthy diet and regular exercise,” said Gaudet, who was not involved in the study.

Research found that overweight and obese women had a higher risk of developing breast cancer after menopause.

Doctors have long relied on body mass index (BMI) to tell whether people are normal weight, but BMI does not distinguish between fat, muscle and bone and is an imprecise gauge of body composition and disease risks.

The findings are based on 3 460 women aged 50 to 79.

The women all had a normal BMI at the outset, and all had their body fat measured with dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, or DXA, a whole-body scan of a person’s body composition. Over 16 years, 182 women developed breast cancer.

The study found women whose fat levels were in the top 25% were twice as likely to develop the cancer, compared with women in the bottom 25%.

Lead researcher, Dr Neil Iyengar, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York, said the findings did not prove definitively that body fat caused the cancers: the team included the women’s family history of breast cancer, use of hormone therapy, and their exercise and drinking habits. – New York Times