Obesity impacts the survival chances of children diagnosed with cancer.
The retrospective study was based on data from the database of pediatric and young adult cancers in Canada (Cancer in Young People in Canada, CYP-C), which includes all children diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 2 and 18 across Canada from 2001 to 2020. Obesity was defined as an age- and sex-adjusted body mass index at or above the 95th percentile.
Among 11,291 children with cancer, 10.5% were obese at the time of diagnosis. Researchers assessed five-year event-free survival (survival without cancer recurrence) as well as overall survival.
Compared to patients without obesity at the time of the initial cancer diagnosis, obese patients had lower five-year event-free survival rates (77.5% vs. 79.6%) and overall survival rates (83.0% vs. 85.9%).
After adjusting for factors such as age, sex, ethnicity, regional income quintile, treatment period, and cancer type, obesity at diagnosis was associated with a 16% increased risk of recurrence and a 29% increased risk of death. The negative impact of obesity on prognosis was particularly pronounced in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and brain tumors.
“Our study highlights the detrimental effects of obesity on all types of cancer in children. It provides a basis for evaluating various strategies to mitigate the negative risks of obesity on malignant outcomes in future research,” says study co-author Thai Hoa Tran, MD, a researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal. “This also underscores the urgent need to address the childhood obesity epidemic, as it can lead to significant health consequences.”