Obesity as a prognostic factor in breast cancer women

Abstract

Physical and emotional disabilities in surviving breast cancer patients impact negatively in quality of life, social insertion and in work. Detecting modifiable risk and prognostic factors such as obesity related to breast cancer is extremely relevant to possible improvements in this context. 21 This study aims to evaluate the role of obesity in the survival of women diagnosed with breast cancer considering the presence of other prognostic factors related to the tumor. Methods This is a survival study of patients diagnosed with breast cancer and its relation with obesity and tumor prognostic factors. The study consisted of a hospital-based sample of women over 18 years of age, with diagnostic confirmation of breast cancer, attended at a private institution for cancer treatment in the city of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, in the period 2009-2012. Patients were selected through a database search of the institution's electronic medical record (EMR). All female patients above 18 years of age who had diagnostic confirmation