Inferior event-free and overall survival seen for patients with obesity, especially children with ALL and CNS tumors
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Jan. 13, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Obesity at cancer diagnosis is associated with inferior survival among children aged 2 to 18 years, according to a study published online Jan. 13 in Cancer.
Samuel Sassine, M.D., from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte‐Justine in Montreal, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Cancer in Young People in Canada database, including children aged 2 to 18 years with newly diagnosed cancer from 2001 to 2020. Obesity was defined as age‐ and sex‐adjusted body mass index ≥95th percentile.
A total of 11,291 patients were included in the cohort; 10.5 percent had obesity at diagnosis. The researchers found that obesity at diagnosis was independently associated with inferior event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS; adjusted hazard ratios, 1.16 and 1.29, respectively) in models controlling for age, sex, ethnicity, neighborhood income quintile, treatment era, and cancer categories. For acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and central nervous system (CNS) tumors, the adverse prognostic impact of obesity was particularly notable. In a multivariable analysis, obesity remained associated with inferior EFS and OS in 3,458 children with ALL (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.55 and 1.75, respectively). Obesity was also associated with inferior EFS and OS in 2,458 children with CNS tumors (adjusted hazard ratios, 1.38 and 1.47, respectively).
“Our study highlights the negative impact of obesity among all types of childhood cancers,” co-senior author Thai Hoa Tran, M.D., also from the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte‐Justine, said in a statement. “It provides the rationale to evaluate different strategies to mitigate the adverse risk of obesity on cancer outcomes in future trials.”
One author disclosed ties to Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Servier Pharmaceuticals.
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