Breast cancer screening should be more frequent for overweight women, scientists say

London, 20 Nov 2017:

Overweight women should be screened for breast cancer more frequently as they have a greater chance of rapidly developing hard-to-treat tumours, a new study shows.

An investigation revealed that those with a BMI of 25 or above were more likely to be diagnosed with tumours two centimeters or larger - the threshold between stage one and stage two cancers - than women of a healthy weight.

In England, women aged between 50 and 70 are currently invited by the NHS to undergo mammogram screening for breast cancer once every three years, although in some areas the starting age is being reduced to 47.

The study authors called on doctors to more proactively recommend screening for overweight women.

The investigation involved more than 2,000 cases of breast cancer over seven years in Sweden, where screening for the disease takes place at 18 to 24-month intervals.

“Women with high BMI should consider shorter time intervals between screenings”- Dr Fredrik Strand, Karolinska University Hospital

It found that for cancers detected at screening, both BMI and breast density were associated with having a large tumour at diagnosis, but for cancers detected within two years of a normal mammogram, only BMI was linked with having a large tumour.

Dr Fredrik Strand, who co-led the research at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, said: “Our study suggests that when a clinician presents the pros and cons of breast cancer screening to the patient, having high BMI should be an important pro argument.

"In addition, our findings suggest that women with high BMI should consider shorter time intervals between screenings."

Besides the larger interval cancers, women with high BMI may have other factors that put them at risk for a worse prognosis, including the molecular composition of the tumours and hormone receptor expression levels that make them harder to treat.

According to the WHO, approximately six out of 10 British women are are overweight or obese.

There are roughly 55,000 new cases of breast cancer each year, while more than 11,000 people die from the disease. The Telegraph