Dana-Farber's Jennifer Ligibel, MD reviews a telephone-based weight loss intervention that led to significant improvements in metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers associated with cancer recurrence according to new data.
We know that obesity is linked to poor outcomes in early breast cancer. Individuals with obesity at diagnosis are at higher risk of cancer occurrence, cancer related mortality. We don't know exactly how obesity affects breast cancer outcomes. But many hypotheses support the unfavorable effects of obesity on metabolism and inflammation as being the key biologic drivers that connect obesity and breast cancer outcomes. The breast cancer weight loss trial is a phase three randomized trial that is testing the impact of a supervised weight loss intervention on disease recurrence and mortality outcomes in women with early breast cancer. At San Antonio. This year, we are presenting a key secondary outcome. Looking at the impact of the weight loss intervention on metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers, insulin leptin C reactive protein and insulin resistance. The study demonstrated that women who were randomized to the weight loss intervention had significant and favorable changes in insulin in leptin in c reactive protein and in insulin resistance. So the weight loss intervention improved all of these metabolic and inflammatory biomarkers. We also saw that favorable changes were correlated with weight loss more so than they were correlated with changes in waist circumference. Next steps, of this project will be to go on and look at whether these favorable changes in biomarkers are related to better breast cancer outcomes.
