Leukaemia Linked
to Obesity
Aug 05, 2005
The risk of developing myeloid leukaemia appears to
significantly rise as body weight and waist size increase,
Australian researchers report.
While the risk of developing myeloid leukaemia increased
with body
mass index, fat-free mass and waist circumference,
the risk of other blood cancers - such as multiple myeloma,
lymphocytic leukaemia, hairy cell leukaemia, Hodgkin
lymphoma, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma - did not, the investigators
found.
How the study was conducted
In their study, Graham G. Giles, from the Cancer Council
Victoria in Melbourne, and his team collected data on
40 909 people aged 27 to 75. They followed this group
for slightly more than eight years.
During that time, they measured waist and hip size,
height and weight, calculated the waist-to-hip ratio
and the body mass index, and measured the fat mass and
fat-free mass of each participant. They also collected
data about cancers among these people.
Obesity significantly increased risk of myeloid leukaemia
The research team found that people who were overweight
or obese had five times the risk of developing myeloid
leukaemia compared with those whose weight was normal.
In addition, people who had extra weight around the
middle had a higher risk of developing myeloid leukaemia,
according to the report.
"We found that overall adiposity (including central)
and non-adipose mass (or fat-free mass) were both associated
with myeloid leukaemia," the authors wrote. "However,
they were not associated with any other lymphohematopoietic
malignancies."
One expert believes that added weight is a factor in
both the risk for myeloid leukaemia and its treatment.
"It is clear from epidemiological studies that
there is an increased risk of myeloid leukaemia in fat
people," said Dr Anna M. Butturini, an associate
professor of clinical paediatrics at the Keck School
of Medicine at the University of Southern California.
"It is possible that there is something in fat
tissue that makes the risk of myeloid leukaemia more
likely," she added.
Overweight people at higher relapse risk
In adults and children who are overweight and have myeloid
leukaemia, the risk of relapse is greater, Butturini
noted. "This is probably due to the fact that the
(chemotherapy) treatment we are doing in fat people
doesn't work as well as in non-fat people," she
said.
"We really don't know how to dose chemotherapy
in fat people," Butturini said. "It could
just be the fact that we are not good enough, or it
is possible that leukaemia cells in fat people respond
differently than in non-fat people."
Another expert, Eugenia Calle, director of analytic
epidemiology at the American Cancer Society, thinks
the new findings highlight an emerging trend in cancer
research - that is, finding a link between body weight
and the risk for blood cancers.
"This study adds to a growing literature that
has been looking at the influence of body size on blood
cancers," Calle said. "But we don't have strong
conclusions yet." – (HealthDayNews)
Source: http://www.health24.com
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