The Association of Body Mass Index and Adverse Clinico-Pathological Characteristics of Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer Among Patients from Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Obesity is a global health problem, especially in the Arab region, the prevalence of obesity is increasing. 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 western countries and different life style behaviours such as maintaining healthy body weight and physical activity may play a role in this. In this study, we aimed to investigate the association between BMI and BC clinicopathological features. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the records of females diagnosed with non-metastatic BC over four years. The association between BMI and patients’ demographics, BC histological type, receptor status, differentiation grade, tumor size, involvement of axillary lymph node, and performed procedures was analysed. Result: We studied 315 patients with non-metastatic BC. 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. We found that the mean age of diagnosis is significantly greater in obese women than other BMI groups with a P-value = 0.025. A significant relationship was observed between BMI classification and tumor size in obese female patients aged ⩾ 40 years with P-value=0.022 Conclusion: The relationship between BMI and BC is still not clear, in this study we found an association with age at diagnosis and tumor size in older patients, characteristics as histological types, receptor status, lymph node involvement, and grade were not statistically significant.