Women who gain weight after a diagnosis of breast cancer face a higher risk of dying from the disease, according to a new report.

“The majority of women who undergo treatment for a breast cancer diagnosis gain weight subsequent to treatment, and this may adversely impact survival,” Dr. Candyce H. Kroenke from Harvard Medical School, Boston, told AMN Health.

She said doctors “may wish to work with women to develop a plan that can help them to maintain weight after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.”

Kroenke added, “There is good evidence to suggest that a healthy diet and physical activity, which may help women to maintain healthy weight, may also improve survival after diagnosis.”

Kroenke and colleagues evaluated the impact of weight gain on breast cancer survival in 5204 women who developed breast cancer while participating in the Nurses’ Health Study.

The team found that weight gain after breast cancer diagnosis was associated with an increased risk of the disease recurring and of dying from breast cancer death, but only among women who had never smoked.

The association between weight gain and breast cancer mortality was evident only among women whose weight had been normal, and not among those who were overweight at the time of their diagnosis, the investigators report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

“The fact that so many women gain weight after diagnosis (60 percent or more depending on the study) suggests that women undergoing treatment encounter particular difficulties and barriers in attempting to maintain a healthy weight,” Kroenke explained.

“For example, treatment with chemotherapy has been linked to weight gain. I am hopeful and optimistic that new treatments developed in the future will have fewer negative side effects,” she said.

“An important follow-up to this study would be to explore how weight loss influences survival,” Kroenke concluded. “I have been working to develop a study about particular aspects of diet that might help women to maintain weight after a breast cancer diagnosis.”

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Oncology, March 1, 2005.