Usually, a fat woman with breast cancer will receive a dose of low-dose chemotherapy as they fight breast cancer. Back in June 2005, a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine concluded that obese women should receive chemotherapy based on their actual women, and not subtracted that much as standard practice.
And now again a study presented in the August 2005 issue of the Lancet that doctors should not reduce the dose of chemotherapy for obese women when no estrogen hormone receptors are found in breast cancer cells. This type of cancer is called a negative estrogen receptor.
Doctors often reduce the doses of chemotherapy for obese patients because of concerns about how treatments can react with patients and affect their overall health.
According to research director Marco Colleoni of the European Institute of Oncology, Italy, and colleagues, reducing the first chemotherapy for obese patients with estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer proved "harmful".
Colleoni and her team looked at the relationship between body mass index (BMI), chemotherapy dose reduction, estrogen receptor expression, and outcomes for pre-menopausal women with breast cancer by examining data from four randomized trials.
They found that 97 of 249 obese patients received less than 85 f doses prescribed protocol during the first chemotherapy compared with patients with normal and intermediate BMI.
Obese patients with estrogen-receptor-negative disease who received 85 r more doses prescribed the first protocol had significantly better disease-free survival and overall survival than those who received less than the usual 85 d dose recommended.
However, obese patients with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer who had reduced doses of chemotherapy had no significant difference in outcomes compared with recommended doses of chemotherapy.
And contrary to popular practice, researchers also noticed that obese patients initially treated with chemotherapy therapy doses did not have more toxicity than patients who received low doses.
Dr. Marco Colleoni concluded that "Our findings suggest that for women with ER-absent or ER-low tumors, dose reduction chemotherapy should be avoided."
Messages for fat women facing cancer should be aware of your risks and rights. Ask your doctor if he or she would recommend a lower dose