Women who gain a more substantial amount of weight after being diagnosed with breast cancer face an increased risk of dying from the disease, according to findings from a new study.
However, that higher mortality risk only appears to apply to women who are overweight or at a healthy weight before diagnosis, not to those who are obese prediagnosis, explained lead study author Sixten Harborg, MD, PhD, with Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, who presented the findings at European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer 2025.
Obesity at breast cancer diagnosis is associated with dismal prognosis, but the effect of postdiagnosis weight change remains underinvestigated and “the evidence is inconclusive,” Harborg told attendees.
The researchers set out to identify…