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Portrait of Sophia Zackrisson. Photo

Sophia Zackrisson

Research group manager, Principal investigator, Professor, MD

Portrait of Sophia Zackrisson. Photo

The association between body mass index and pathological complete response in neoadjuvant-treated breast cancer patients

Author

  • Ida Skarping
  • Stine Blaabjerg Pedersen
  • Daniel Förnvik
  • Sophia Zackrisson
  • Signe Borgquist

Summary, in English

Background: Obesity seems to be associated with a poorer response to adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer (BC); however, associations in the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) setting and according to menopausal status are less studied. This study aims to investigate the association between pretreatment body mass index (BMI) and pathological complete response (pCR) following NACT in BC according to menopausal and estrogen receptor (ER) status. Material and Methods: The study cohort consisted of 491 patients receiving NACT in 2005–2019. Based on pre-NACT patient and tumor characteristics, the association between BMI and achieving pCR was analyzed using logistic regression models (crude and adjusted models (age, tumor size, and node status)) with stratification by menopausal and ER status. Results: In the overall cohort, being overweight (BMI ≥25) compared by being normal-weight (BMI <25), increased the odds of accomplishing pCR by 15%. However, based on the 95% confidence interval (CI) the data were compatible with associations within the range of a decrease of 30% to an increase of 89%. Stratification according to menopausal status also showed no strong association: the odds ratio (OR) of accomplishing pCR in overweight premenopausal patients compared with normal-weight premenopausal patients was 1.76 (95% CI 0.88–3.55), whereas for postmenopausal patients the corresponding OR was 0.71 (95% CI 0.35–1.46). Discussion: In a NACT BC cohort of 491 patients, we found no evidence of high BMI as a predictive factor of accomplishing pCR, neither in the whole cohort nor stratified by menopausal status. Given the limited precision in our results, larger studies are needed before considering BMI in clinical decision-making regarding NACT or not.

Department/s

  • Breastcancer
  • LUCC: Lund University Cancer Centre
  • Breast cancer prevention & intervention
  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö
  • LTH Profile Area: Photon Science and Technology
  • EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
  • Diagnostic Radiology, (Lund)

Publishing year

2022

Language

English

Pages

731-737

Publication/Series

Acta Oncologica

Volume

61

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Cancer and Oncology

Keywords

  • BMI
  • body constitution
  • Breast neoplasm
  • neoadjuvant chemotherapy
  • obesity

Status

Published

Research group

  • Breast cancer prevention & intervention
  • Medical Radiation Physics, Malmö

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0284-186X