TY - JOUR
T1 - Weight gain and lymphedema after breast cancer treatment : avoiding the catch-22?
AU - Boyages, John
AU - Cave, Adele E.
AU - Naidoo, Dhevaksha
AU - Ee, Carolyn
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Background: Overweight and obesity are strongly implicated in breast cancer (BC) development and are also a risk factor for BC-related lymphedema (BCRL). Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted between November 2017 and January 2018. Analyses were restricted to women with localized BC, who provided information about BCRL (n = 238). Most women were not experiencing BCRL (55.46%). Results: Mean self-reported weight at diagnosis was 68.55 kg for women without BCRL and 74.43 kg for women with BCRL (p = 0.0021). In this study, 50.9% with BCRL were overweight/obese at diagnosis (body mass index [BMI] ≥25) compared with 36.4% of women without BCRL (p = 0.003). For women without BCRL, 12.12% were classified as obese (BMI ≥30) versus 20.75% with BCRL. Women with BCRL were more likely to have gained >5% of body weight (p = 0.03), be currently overweight or obese (p = 0.004), and less active (48.11%) than they were at diagnosis than women without BCRL (33.33%) (p = 0.042). Having a structured exercise program, following a prescribed diet, and being accountable to someone else were identified as the main facilitators to successful weight loss and weight maintenance. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider obesity when personalizing axillary treatment and encourage lifestyle interventions and lymphedema screening after BC treatment.
AB - Background: Overweight and obesity are strongly implicated in breast cancer (BC) development and are also a risk factor for BC-related lymphedema (BCRL). Materials and Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted between November 2017 and January 2018. Analyses were restricted to women with localized BC, who provided information about BCRL (n = 238). Most women were not experiencing BCRL (55.46%). Results: Mean self-reported weight at diagnosis was 68.55 kg for women without BCRL and 74.43 kg for women with BCRL (p = 0.0021). In this study, 50.9% with BCRL were overweight/obese at diagnosis (body mass index [BMI] ≥25) compared with 36.4% of women without BCRL (p = 0.003). For women without BCRL, 12.12% were classified as obese (BMI ≥30) versus 20.75% with BCRL. Women with BCRL were more likely to have gained >5% of body weight (p = 0.03), be currently overweight or obese (p = 0.004), and less active (48.11%) than they were at diagnosis than women without BCRL (33.33%) (p = 0.042). Having a structured exercise program, following a prescribed diet, and being accountable to someone else were identified as the main facilitators to successful weight loss and weight maintenance. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider obesity when personalizing axillary treatment and encourage lifestyle interventions and lymphedema screening after BC treatment.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/1959.7/uws:61807
U2 - 10.1089/lrb.2020.0048
DO - 10.1089/lrb.2020.0048
M3 - Article
SN - 1557-8585
SN - 1539-6851
VL - 20
SP - 409
EP - 416
JO - Lymphatic Research and Biology
JF - Lymphatic Research and Biology
IS - 4
ER -