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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Obesity Raises the Risk of Multiple Myeloma Found
Most Often in Senior Citizens
A Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or higher is
considered obese
July 19, 2007 - An obese person is more likely than
a lean person to develop multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells
that produce antibodies, which is most common in senior citizens and
African-Americans. The new study indicates a Body Mass Index (BMI) – a
statistical measure that scales weight to height – provides an indicator
for one’s risk of developing this cancer.
“I find the results of these studies encouraging,
since they show consistent results about the first risk factor for
multiple myeloma that people can actually modify,” said the study’s lead
author Brenda M. Birmann, Sc.D., a researcher in the Department of
Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
“Treatment options for this disease are improving,
but it is also important to identify risk factors that could be
modified. We would like to learn how to prevent its occurrence.”
The study takes its data from over 100,000
participants in the on-going Nurses’ Health Study and Health
Professionals Follow-up Study, two similar large-scale studies. The
study findings were similar to those from previously published studies
that included smaller numbers of multiple myeloma patients, and/or were
based on a one-time recording of height and weight.
Multiple myeloma currently affects more than 50,000
people in the U.S., and the five-year survival rates of the cancer are
below 40 percent.
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About Multiple Myeloma
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Also called: Plasma-cell myeloma
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that begins in plasma
cells, a type of white blood cell. These cells are part of your immune
system, which helps protect the body from germs and other harmful
substances. In time, myeloma cells collect in the bone marrow and in the
solid parts of bone.
No one knows the exact causes of multiple myeloma,
but it is more common in older people and African-Americans. Early
symptoms may include
●
Bone pain, often in the back or ribs
● Broken bones
● Weakness or fatigue
● Weight loss
● Repeated infections
Myeloma is hard to cure. Treatment may help control
symptoms and complications. Options include chemotherapy, stem cell
transplantation and radiation.
National Cancer Institute
>>
More information at MedlinePLUS
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The study is by researchers from Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public
Health. The results are published in the July issue of Cancer
Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American
Association for Cancer Research.
The Brigham and Women’s Hospital-based Nurses’
Health Study has followed the health of female registered nurses since
1976, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, based at Harvard
School of Public Health, has followed males from several health
professions since 1986.
These studies recorded height, weight and physical
activity for each person enrolled, as well as diet, medications, smoking
habits and other health behaviors, and has updated that information
every two to four years.
Of the 136,623 participants who qualified for their
study protocol, Birmann and her colleagues confirmed 215 cases of
multiple myeloma.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is computed by dividing a
person’s weight by the square of their height. A BMI between 18.5 and 25
is considered optimal, a BMI of 25-29 is considered overweight, and a
BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese. (Note:
Click here to the
SeniorJournal.com chart to find your BMI.)
The association between BMI and multiple myeloma
was strongest among men with a BMI of 30 or more. When compared with
leaner men (those with a BMI below 22), obese men, the researchers said,
were over twice as likely to develop multiple myeloma.
The effect was less pronounced among overweight or
obese women, yet those women also had an increased risk.
The study also looked at whether regular exercise
is related to risk of multiple myeloma. There was not a clear effect of
exercise on risk, although the results among women suggested that those
who exercise more might have a lower risk.
“We cannot say with certainty that exercise reduces
the risk of multiple myeloma, but there is ample evidence that regular
exercise offers many other health benefits,” Birmann said.
The study findings do show, however, that the
effect of BMI on risk of multiple myeloma is separate from any possible
effect of physical activity.
According to Birmann, previous research has
identified possible biological links between obesity and multiple
myeloma. For example, adipocytes, cells found in fat tissue, produce a
cell signal, called interleukin-6 (IL-6), which promotes the immune
system’s inflammation response. In obese people, this can cause an
overproduction of IL-6, which in turn creates a cellular environment
that sustains multiple myeloma.
“The IL-6 chemical pathway is one possible way
obesity could influence the risk of developing diseases like cancer or
cardiovascular disease, but the answer might also lie in other
relationships between obesity and cancer,” Birmann said.
Further research, she said, will uncover more about
the relationships between obesity and cancers such as multiple myeloma.
The researchers believe their findings may lead to examination in
greater detail of the BMI/multiple myeloma link, including the role of
IL-6 and other chemical signals, energy metabolism, and other risk
factors such as weight change or weight cycling.
Editor’s Notes:
This research was funded through grants from the
Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center Specialized Program in Research
Excellence in Multiple Myeloma, the National Cancer Institute and the
National Institutes of Health.
The mission of the American Association for
Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is
the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to
advancing cancer research. The membership includes nearly 26,000 basic,
translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and
cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 70
other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the
cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and
treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational
programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants.
The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000
participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the
field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across
a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient
care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research;
Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular
Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its
most recent publication, CR, is a magazine for cancer survivors, patient
advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. It provides a
forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives
on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.
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