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Are Obese Women Getting Short-Changed By Chemotherapy
Treatments?
How much chemotherapy does an obese woman need? Typically an
obese woman with breast cancer would receive reduced doses of
chemotherapy as they battle breast cancer.
Back in June of 2005, a study published in the Archives of
Internal Medicine concluded that obese women should receive
chemotherapy based on their actual weight, and not in reduced as
amounts as it the standard practice.
And now again a study presented in the August 2005 edition of
Lancet claims that doctors should not reduce chemotherapy doses for
obese women when no receptors for the hormone oestrogen have been
found on the breast cancer cells. This type of cancer is called
oestrogen-receptor negative.
Clinicians often reduce chemotherapy doses for obese patients
because of worries about how the treatment may react with the
patient and affect their overall health.
According to the study's director Marco Colleoni of the European
Institute of Oncology, Italy, and his colleagues, reducing the
first course of chemotherapy for obese patients with
oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer proves "detrimental".
Colleoni and his team looked at the relation between body-mass
index (BMI), chemotherapy dose reduction, oestrogen receptor
expression, and outcome for pre-menopausal women with breast cancer
by examining data from four randomized trials.
They found that 97 out of 249 obese patients received less than
85% of protocol specified dose during the first course of
chemotherapy compared with patients with normal and intermediate
BMI.
Obese patients with oestrogen-receptor negative disease that
received 85% or more of the first protocol specified dose had
significantly better disease-free survival and overall survival
than those who received less than 85% of the normally recommended
dosage.
Yet, obese patients with oestrogen-receptor positive breast
cancer who had reduced doses of chemotherapy did not have a
significant difference in their outcome compared with those given
the recommended chemotherapy doses.
And contrary to popular practice, the researchers also noticed
that obese patients initially treated with protocol doses of
chemotherapy did not have more toxicity than patients who received
reduced doses.
Dr Marco Colleoni concluded that, "Our findings suggest that for
women with ER-absent or ER-low tumours, reduction in chemotherapy
dose should be avoided."
The message for obese women coping with cancer is to be aware of
your risks and rights. Ask your doctor will she recommend lower
doses of chemotherapy for you based on your weight and ask why.
Resources: Lancet, Archives of Internal Medicine
Health author and Stanford University graduate Naweko San-Joyz
lovingly writes from her home in San Diego. Her works include Acne
Messages: Crack the Code of Your Zits and Say Goodbye to Acne
(ISBN: 0974912204) and Skinny Fat Chicks, Why We're Still Not
Getting This Dieting Thing (ISBN: 0974912212). Naweko created the
Noixia philosophy to help people enhance their lives by connecting
with their inner-mysteries and inner-selves. Her works take often
over-looked, yet viable research and transforms in into practical
tools that people can use to improve their health. Get useful, but
too often ignored women's health news by visiting http://www.Noixia.com, Where
Beauty Means Health.
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