The effect of obesity on the overall survival in node-positive breast cancer patients

Objective:To investigate the effect of obesity on the prognosis of node-positive breast cancer patients.Methods:To collect the clinical data from 593 node-positive breast cancer patients including age,menopausal status,family history,body mass index(BMI),histopathological examinations and clinical treatments.Log-rank test and COX proportional hazards regression analysis were performed to make univariate and multivariate analysis.The clinical factors associated with overall survival(OS) were analyzed.The chi square test was used to compare the differences in clinicopathologic features between obese and non-obese patients.Results:Obesity was an independent prognostic factor associated with poorer clinical outcomes in node-positive breast cancer patients(P=0.003).Subset analyses showed that obesity was independently associated with OS in pre-menopausal patients(P=0.010),but obesity had no effects on OS in postmenopausal patients.Obesity was associated with tumor size(P0.001).Conclusion:Obesity was an independent negative prognostic factor for OS in node-positive breast cancer patients,especially among pre-menopausal patients.Obesity was associated with larger tumor size,which may be one of the important reasons for poorer outcomes among obese patients.