People with advanced colorectal cancer who are overweight or obese may
survive longer than their thinner counterparts, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that, on average, patients with a body mass index (BMI)
of 25 or higher lived two and a half months longer after starting their
treatment than patients with a lower BMI. People with a BMI of 25 or
higher are considered overweight, and those with a BMI of 30 or higher
are considered obese.
As BMI increased, the length of survival also went up, the researchers found.
"These results are surprising," Dr. Yousuf Zafar, the study's lead researcher and an associate professor of medicine at Duke University, said in a statement. "What we expected, based on
prior evidence, was that those obese patients would do worse." The researchers gathered data from more than 6,000 patients with stage
IV colorectal cancer who were enrolled in five cancer registry studies
in the United States and Europe. All of the patients received the same
drug, bevacizumab (known by the brand name Avastin) during their
chemotherapy treatment.
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