Obesity is a major treat to ovarian cancer patients

Previous studies have showed a huge link between obesity and certain malignancies like endometrial, kidney, breast and colon cancer. A new study was done to determine the connection between ovarian cancer and obesity and the results are not promising.

It has been found that obese women do much worse regarding ovarian cancer survival rates than women who are slightly overweight or normal weight. Not only do obese women have lower chances of survival but they also have greater risk of suffering from cancer recurrence.

Researchers suspect that fat cells secrete a hormonal factor that has a major impact on the cancer cells making them more aggressive and less resistant to damage during chemotherapy.

The study included 216 ovarian cancer patients and the main goal was to determine a link between obesity, ovarian cancer, the biology of the tumors and health outcomes. Among these women, 50% were of ideal weight, 26% were overweight and 16% were obese.

The results showed that the bigger the BMI the lesser chances of survival meaning that women with an BMI over 25 had shorter disease-free survival times. Not much difference was seen in the overall picture between the obese and normal weight women but when women with advanced cancers were selected, these results emerged.

Obesity was linked to lower survival rates and less time taken to suffer from recurrence.