Obesity Affects Ovarian Cancer Outcome

According to a new study published today in the online edition of the American Cancer Society's journal Cancer, the weight of a woman affects the outcome of her ovarian cancer after she had been diagnosed with this particular type of cancer. Overweight and obesity were found to cause earlier death and shorter periods of time until the recurrence of the severe condition. On the contrary, women with a normal BMI (body mass index) which relates to a normal body weight are less likely to experience such dramatic outcome of the ovarian cancer.

Previous studies have linked obesity to severer outcomes of breast, uterine and colorectal cancers. But the team of experts from the Cedars-Sinai's Women's Cancer Research Institute at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute is the first one to find that obesity can also affect ovarian cancer.

"This study is the first to identify weight as an independent factor in ovarian cancer in disease progression and overall survival, suggesting that there is an element in the fat tissue itself that influences the outcome of this disease in obese women," said Andrew Li, M.D., and leader of the study.

In the trial, scientists investigated 216 women with various body weights. Out of these, 35 were obese (a BMI higher than 30) and 108 had an ideal body weight. Results showed that not only did extra body weight negatively influence the outcome of ovarian cancer, but the team also found that the molecular characteristics and features of the cancer tumors appeared to be different in obese and normal weighted women.

Dr. Li explained that exceeding body weight and, implicitly, fat tissue, cause ovarian cancer cells to proliferate more aggressively: "While further molecular studies are warranted, our study suggests that fat tissue excretes a hormone or protein that causes ovarian cancer cells to grow more aggressively. The next steps will be to examine this relationship more closely, and to determine the exact biological mechanisms that influence tumor growth in ovarian cancer."