Weight gain in breast cancer survivors is a big issue of public health and most importantly a great challenge for women, during one of the most difficult period of their lives. Contrary than what we might think, chemotherapy is mostly responsible and less cortisone and hormone modulating treatments. Usually, weight gains are in the range of 2-6 kg, they occur mostly during the first 2 years of treatments and tend to stabilise thereafter.Premenopausal patients have more propensity to gain weight than postmenopausal. Also, women with a normal pre-treatment weight tend to gain more weight than already overweight women before treatment.
The mechanisms of weight gain are complex and not thoroughly elucidated and seem to include the amenorrhea-related increase of abdominal fat and an augmented insulin resistance.
From a lifestyle point of view, the usual suspect is significant exercise decrease and sedentarily due to treatment-related fatigue but importantly, overeating does not seem to be that much of an issue. In this context, an optimised nutritional system such as the one proposed by mispoon may be particularly helpful.
In good health
DS
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