Study shows women with a healthy weight can expect more positive prognosis
High body mass index (BMI) could lead to tougher diagnoses for women with breast cancer.
A team of researchers at the University of Texas' Anderson Cancer Centre found women with locally advanced and inflammatory breast cancers had a worse prognosis if they had a high BMI ratio.
The study revealed women with a healthy BMI ratio had a tendency to fair better.
The study was conducted because the majority of newly-diagnosed patients with inflammatory breast cancer were overweight or obese.
Breast cancer sufferers were also in the news last month when American scientists revealed that the gene, SATB1, which has been known to regulate the activity of more than 1,000 other genes, plays a role in aggressive breast cancer.
Researchers at the University of California found the gene is a key player in metastasis, the process by which cancer cells move away from the primary tumour site and settle in other parts of the body.
SATB1 controls a large number of other genes and recruiting enzymes that regulate the structure of chromatin, the DNA and protein complex that makes up chromosomes inside the cell's nucleus.
Through deliberately switching the gene on in breast cells, researchers were able to form highly aggressive tumours in the laboratory.
By blocking the gene's activity, they were able to prevent cancer cells from dividing and spreading.
