(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Obesity may be bad for your health in an unexpected
way. Research shows obese patients tend to have worse outcomes after pancreatic
cancer surgery, including higher rates of recurrence, an increased risk of
cancer spreading to lymph nodes and lower rates of survival.
The risks were identified for patients with a body mass index score greater than
35. Following surgery to remove part or all of the pancreas, obese patients were
more likely to die after surgery, with a median survival time of 13.2 months,
compared to 27.4 months for patients with a BMI below 23.
“Our findings … suggest that obesity is a host factor affecting tumor biology
independent of the difficulties (patient- and treatment-related) involved in
delivering oncologic care in obese patients,” study authors wrote.
SOURCE: Archives of Surgery, 2009;144:216-221
