Weight Management Cuts Cardiovascular Risks in Breast Cancer Survivors

Findings from a retrospective cohort study at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium showed that weight management strategies, such as nutrition counseling and bariatric surgery, reduced cardiovascular (CV) events in breast cancer survivors, thereby addressing a major survivorship challenge. The research was presented during the session, “Mechanisms of Obesity-Related Risk for Breast Cancer and Approaches to Risk Reduction.”

In this MedPage Today video, Neil Iyengar, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, discusses results of the study.

The following is a transcript of his remarks:

So, this morning we had a poster spotlight discussion that looked at four studies, which addressed lifestyle interventions or retrospective interventions and their impact on various outcomes in breast cancer survivors.

The first study that we reviewed was a retrospective cohort study that looked at a large national database and looked at the impact of weight management therapy after breast cancer diagnosis on CV outcomes.

CV comorbidities or complications are a major problem for breast cancer survivors. Survivors are at an increased risk for CV disease, and so the authors looked at whether or not the use of a weight management strategy, like nutrition counseling, for example, or bariatric surgery or weight loss drugs, improved the rate of CV events.

And indeed, that is what they found, that the use of weight management therapies lowered the rates of CV events in breast cancer survivors.

One comment I’ll make on that study was that despite that positive finding, less than 10% of patients received weight management therapy after a breast cancer diagnosis. So, I think this points to an opportunity to incorporate more weight management therapy for our patients with metabolic disorders and obesity after a breast cancer diagnosis.

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