In cancer children, those suffering from obesity at the time of diagnosis may be faced with a high risk of death.
- In a recent study, 10.5 % of children who were diagnosed with cancer were obese.
- Infantile obesity at the time of diagnosis is independently associated with low survival rates.
- This is particularly observed in young people with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and brain tumors.
A new study highlights the negative impact of obesity on all types of infant cancer. To carry out it, researchers from the Sainte-Justine university hospital center in Montreal relied on the information from the cancer database in young people in Canada, which includes all children aged 2 to 18 with whom a Cancer was diagnosed between 2001 and 2020. Obesity was defined as a body mass index adjusted as a function of age and sex equal to the 95th percentile. In addition, the team evaluated survival without an event at five years (survival without relapse of cancer), as well as overall survival.
Cancer: lower survival rates in obese children at the time of diagnosis
A total of 11,291 patients were included. Among them, 10.5 % were obese at the time of cancer diagnosis. Compared to young people who were not obese at the time of the initial diagnosis of cancer, obese children had lower rates of survival without five years (77.5 % against 79.6 %) and overall survival (83, 0 % against 85.9 %). After taking into account factors, such as age, sex, ethnic origin, the time of treatment and the various tumors, the authors found that obesity at the time of diagnosis was linked to an increase of 16 % of the risk of relapse and 29 % of the risk of death. “The negative impact of obesity on prognosis was particularly pronounced in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and brain tumors”, Can we read in the results published in the journal Cancer.
An “urgent need to reduce the infantile obesity epidemic”
“Our work justifies the evaluation of different strategies aimed at mitigating the negative risk of obesity on cancer results in future trials. They also strengthen the urgent need to reduce the epidemic of infantile obesity, as it can have important health consequences “, has concluded Thai Hoa Tranco-author of the study. As a reminder, in addition to increasing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, neurological disorders, chronic respiratory pathologies and digestive disorders, obesity in children and adolescents has different harmful psychosocial consequences. “It has repercussions on academic results and quality of life, which are aggravated stigma, discrimination and harassment”indicates The World Health Organization (WHO).
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