- ASCO: Obesity Does Not Increase Risk for Ovarian Cancer Return

http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OvarianCancer/32949 :

By Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: May 29, 2012

Reviewed by Dori F. Zaleznik, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Action Points

• Note that this study was published as an abstract and will be presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
• A study found that obesity did not affect recurrence, time to recurrence, or progression-free survival in women with epithelial ovarian cancer following surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy without evidence of disease during treatment.
• Note that the approximately one-third of patients who had BMI >30 kg/m² had similar recurrence rates and time to recurrence as the two-thirds of non-obese patients.

CHICAGO -- Among women with primary epithelial ovarian cancer, the time to recurrence was no different between obese and non-obese patients, a retrospective study showed.
Among patients from two centers, recurrence occurred in 47.9% of non-obese women and 37.7% of obese women (body mass index >30 kg/m²), and the time to recurrence was 15 months in both groups (P=1.0), according to Karina Hew, MD, of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, and colleagues.
In addition, progression-free survival (PFS) was not significantly different based on BMI (P=0.118), the researchers reported in an abstract ahead of the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting here.
The researchers defined recurrence as a positive radiological or pathological diagnosis of cancer after the patient had surgery, received adjuvant chemotherapy, and did not have any clinical, radiological, or serological evidence of recurrence during treatment.
Previous research examining the relationship between obesity and ovarian cancer has yielded mixed results, with some studies suggesting that obesity is associated with altered tumor biology and a worse prognosis.
One study published last month showed that every 5 kg/m² increase in BMI was associated with a 10% greater relative risk of having ovarian cancer (RR 1.10, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.13) among women who had never used hormone replacement therapy.
Another study published last year, however, showed that BMI was not associated with overall epithelial ovarian cancer risk (RR 1.15, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.36), although obesity was significantly associated with the risk of endometrioid ovarian cancer (RR 1.84, 95% CI 1.00 to 2.70).
In terms of survival, a 2008 study showed that obese patients with epithelial ovarian cancer -- compared with non-obese patients -- had similar PFS (17 versus 11 months, P=0.14) and overall survival (48 versus 40 months, P=0.37) following primary cytoreductive surgery.
In this current retrospective chart review, Hew and colleagues looked at the time to recurrence among patients diagnosed with primary epithelial ovarian cancer from 2004 to 2009 at Mercy Medical Center or the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
Although 591 patients were diagnosed during the study period, only 370 were left for analysis after exclusions for persistent or progressive disease, treatment with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, presence of synchronous tumors, or incomplete follow up.
About one-third (35%) of the women were obese, and recurrence occurred after a similar length of time in both obese and non-obese women.

The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

Primary source: American Society of Clinical Oncology
Source reference:
Hew K, et al. "The impact of obesity on time to recurrence in ovarian cancer: a retrospective study" ASCO 2012;abstract 5055.

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Todd Neale
Senior Staff Writer
Todd Neale, MedPage Today Staff Writer, got his start in journalism at Audubon Magazine and made a stop in directory publishing before landing at MedPage Today. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an M.A. in journalism from the Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting program at New York University. He is based at MedPage Today headquarters in Little Falls, N.J.

- Co-morbiditeit bij ovariumkanker

Journal home > Archive > Epidemiology > Abstract

Epidemiology

British Journal of Cancer (2012) 106, 1860–1865. doi:10.1038/bjc.2012.164 http://www.bjcancer.com/
Published online 1 May 2012

Evaluation of prevalent and incident ovarian cancer co-morbidity

K Stålberg¹, T Svensson², F Granath², H Kieler², B Tholander³ and S Lönn^4,5

1. ¹Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden
2. ²Department of Medicine, Centre for Pharmacoepidemiology, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
3. ³Department of Oncology, Radiology and Clinical Immunology, University Hospital, 75185 Uppsala, Sweden
4. ⁴Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
5. ⁵Research and Development, AstraZeneca, 15185 Södertälje, Sweden

Correspondence: Dr K Stålberg, E-mail: karin.stalberg@kbh.uu.se

Received 22 December 2011; Revised 20 March 2012; Accepted 25 March 2012
Advance online publication 1 May 2012

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Abstract

Background:

  

The peak in incidence of ovarian cancer occurs around 65 years and concurrent increasing risk by age for a number of diseases strongly influence treatment and prognosis. The aim was to explore prevalence and incidence of co-morbidity in ovarian cancer patients compared with the general population.

Methods:

  

The study population was patients with ovarian cancer in Sweden 1993–2006 (n=11 139) and five controls per case (n=55 687). Co-morbidity from 1987 to 2006 was obtained from the Swedish Patient Register. Prevalent data were analysed with logistic regression and incident data with Cox proportional hazards models.

Results:

  

Women developing ovarian cancer did not have higher overall morbidity than other women earlier than 3 months preceding cancer diagnosis. However, at time of diagnosis 11 of 13 prevalent diagnosis groups were more common among ovarian cancer patients compared with controls. The incidence of many common diagnoses was increased several years following the ovarian cancer and the most common diagnoses during the follow-up period were thromboembolism, haematologic and gastrointestinal complications.

Conclusion:

  

Women developing ovarian cancer do not have higher overall morbidity the years preceding cancer diagnosis. The incidence of many common diagnoses was increased several years following the ovarian cancer. It is crucial to consider time between co-morbidity and cancer diagnosis to understand and interpret associations.