Patients suffering from pancreatic cancer who are obese may have a shorter survival rate after diagnosis, compared with patients of a healthy weight, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The American Cancer Society says that around 45,220 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the US this year, and around 38,460 will die from the disease. The majority of patients with pancreatic cancer (pancreatic adenocarcinoma) survive less that a year following diagnosis.
A team of US researchers say previous studies have shown that high body mass index (BMI) may increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. But they note there has been limited research on whether obesity affects disease aggression or survival following diagnosis.
In 1986, the researchers began to look for a link between patients' pre-diagnostic BMI and their survival after diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Patients were selected from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up study.
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