The association of body mass index and adverse clinicopathological characteristics in non-metastatic breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a global health problem. It is becoming increasingly prevalent in Saudi Arabia. High body mass index (BMI) is a risk factor for many diseases, including cancer. Noticeably, breast cancer (BC) cases in Saudi Arabia occur at a younger age than in western countries. Different lifestyle behaviors such as maintaining healthy body weight and physical activity may play a role in this. In this study, we investigated the association between BMI and BC adverse clinicopathological features. METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the records of women with non-metastatic BC over 4 years. The association between BMI and patients' demographics, BC histological type, receptor status, differentiation grade, tumor size, involvement of axillary lymph nodes, and performed procedures were analyzed. RESULT: 315 patients with non-metastatic BC were studied. The mean age at the time of diagnosis was 52.43 years ± 11.63. The mean BMI was 30.21 ± 5.77. The mean tumor size was 3.19 cm ± 3.52. The mean age of diagnosis is significantly higher in obese women than in other BMI groups (P = 0.025). Obese female patients aged ≥40 were more likely to present with larger tumor (P = 0.022) and numerically higher pathological axillary lymph nodes, trending toward statistical significance (P = 0.092). CONCLUSION: The relationship between BMI and developing more aggressive BC is still not clear; in this study, we found that obese patients presented at an older age, with larger tumor and more pathologic lymph nodes. Further research to understand the impact of this finding on outcomes is warranted.