Annals of Oncology Research and Therapy (Jan 2021)

Association of body mass index with clinicopathological characteristics and hormone receptor status in breast cancer patients: An observational study

  • Divya Dahiya,
  • Maninder Deep Kaur,
  • Budhi Singh Yadav,
  • Ashok Kumar

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/aort.aort_3_21
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1, no. 1
pp. 21 – 27

Abstract

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BACKGROUND: There have been inconsistent results on the association of body mass index (BMI) with tumor characteristics, hormone, and menopausal status in breast cancer (BC) patients. OBJECTIVE: This study was intended to analyze the association of BMI with menopausal status, tumor characteristics, and hormone receptor status in BC patients. We also analyzed the significance of human epidermal growth factor type 2 receptor (HER-2)/neu status in association with menopausal status, tumor size, tumor grade, and nodal status in patients with BC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Histologically proven 188 patients of BC with IHC report were included in this study done over 1 year period. Demographic data, pathologic features, and biological receptor status of cases were collected from the patient's records. Chi-square/Fisher's exact test, independent t- and analysis of variance (ANOVA) test were adopted to explore whether BMI differed according to biological receptor status in pre- and post-menopausal women. RESULTS: BMI was found to be significantly associated with the menopausal status of patients (P = 0.02). However, BMI lacks significant association with tumor size, stage, grade, and lymph node status in both pre- and post-menopausal patients. Estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER-2/neu expression were found to have a statistically significant correlation with tumor size (P < 0.001). Statistically significant correlation was also observed between age at the time of diagnosis and HER-2/neu expression (P = 0.02). CONCLUSION: This study revealed that BMI has a significant association with menopausal status. The frequency of expression of ER/PR was the same as reported in the literature; however, expression of HER-2/neu was high in postmenopausal women. Findings from this study may help to develop patient awareness of potentially modifiable lifestyle risk factors such as overweight and obesity as HER-2/neu positivity is associated with poor prognosis.

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