Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women worldwide with over 1.3 million new cases per year.  There is a wide variation in the geographical distribution of the disease with highest incidence seen in the more developed areas of the world and the lowest incidences seen in the least developed regions. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer diagnosed among Indian women. One important factor proposed to contribute to the rising incidence is explained by ‘westernisation’ of lifestyles and changes in reproductive behaviour. Body mass index (BMI) has emerged as an important metameter for the association between adiposity and many obesity related diseases. The WHO Western Pacific Regional Office has defined obesity in Asian populations as BMI≥ 25kg/m2. This study aims to investigate the association between body mass index and breast cancer. This is a case control study conducted at Government Medical College, Kozhikode with 100 cases of female patients (30-60 years) with cytology proven Stage I/II/III breast cancer and with 100 age matched controls. On evaluation it was found that BMI was significantly associated with female breast cancer. When the results were stratified by different menopausal status of the women, higher BMI is associated with increased risk of breast cancer in premenopausal patients whereas stastically no association between higher BMI and breast cancer was found in  postmenopausal.  To conclude high BMI is significantly associated with breast cancer in the pre-menopausal group whereas no significant association was found in the post menopausal group.

Keywords: Body mass index, breast cancer, Premenopause, Postmenopause.

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