SABCS: Dyslipidemia, Obesity After 60 Tied to Breast CA Risk

Diabetes, obesity after age 60, abnormally low lipid levels linked to increased breast cancer risk

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- For women, having diabetes, being obese after age 60, or having abnormally low blood lipid levels are all associated with an increased breast cancer risk, according to a study presented at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held from Dec. 6 to 10.

Håkan Olsson, M.D., from Lund University in Sweden, and colleagues investigated the correlation between diabetes, obesity, and abnormal blood lipids and breast cancer incidence. A total of 2,724 participants with cancer were evaluated for diabetes, obesity, and abnormal blood lipids zero to 10 years prior to cancer diagnosis, and compared to 20,542 controls without breast cancer. The correlation of cancer risk with glargine and metformin use in patients with diabetes was assessed.

The investigators found that, in patients with breast cancer, diabetes was significantly more common before the cancer diagnosis, with diabetes being diagnosed zero to four years prior to the cancer. After adjusting for obesity and high blood lipids, the correlation persisted. For breast cancer patients older than 60 years of age, obesity was significantly more common when the obesity was diagnosed close to the cancer. Patients with breast cancer less commonly had high blood lipids close to diagnosis, while there was a 25 percent increased cancer risk with abnormally low blood lipid levels. In patients with diabetes, cancer risk doubled in association with glargine use, but metformin use was associated with lower cancer risk.

"Within four years of diagnosis [of] diabetes, obesity after age 60 and low blood lipids are associated with breast cancer. Glargine use seems to increase overall cancer risk," the authors write.

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