Maryland Bariatric Surgery May Fend Off Breast Cancer in Older Women

A new study finds a correlation between weight loss and reduced risk to breast cancer in postmenopausal women. An examination of the benefits of bariatric surgery in Maryland may be forthcoming.

Surgeries involving gastric bypass cost Baltimore residents battling obesity a substantial amount of money, but a new study says it may be worth the financial hit. Lap band surgery in Maryland has long been associated with decreasing health risks for those battling obesity. Bariatric Surgery, one of the most effective tools in the war on obesity, may have a newly discovered benefit: reduced risk of one particularly deadly breast cancer. Laparoscopic band surgery, the gastric sleeve procedure, and gastric plication surgery are some of the many bariatric surgeries available today. Another benefit of gastric sleeve surgery Maryland bariatric patients may see is a reduced risk of certain melanomas, but this is purely speculative. Maryland bariatric surgery clinics have touted the benefits of medical weight loss for quite some time, but this new study may have found another plus.

Obesity has been linked to higher instances of estrogen-fueled breast cancer in post-menopausal women. It seems fat tissue may be a host for abnormal cell growth. The women who undergo bariatric surgery in Maryland may have for a legitimately effective way to fend off one of the deadliest cancers known to scientists. New research indicates a correlation between this particularly aggressive kind of breast cancer and obese women past menopause.

The new study looked at body mass index (BMI). Women with the highest BMIs had an almost 40 percent increased risk of developing triple-negative cancer, one of the most aggressive cancers types. Participants with lower BMIs had less risk, according to study leader Amanda Phipps, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle – a result likely prompting guarded celebration by Maryland’s bariatric surgeons – not to mention recipients of gastric bypass Maryland has seen up to this point.

An absence of HER2 protein expression, estrogen, and progesterone serves as an indicator of the deadly cancer, hence the name: triple-negative breast cancer. A very low percentage of breast cancers are diagnosed as triple-negative, but prognoses are rarely optimistic given the cancer’s aggressive nature. Maryland gastric plication surgery is one of the state’s latest offerings in terms of bariatric surgeries. This innovative procedure involves making small incisions in the abdomen and performing the procedure with the help of a video camera, or laparoscope.

The researchers looked at data from almost 200,000 women enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative, which is a larger scale study of women categorized as postmenopausal

Participants underwent BMIs calculations and were asked to report exercise and dietary habits.

During follow-up, which spanned a median of about eight years, 2,600 women were diagnosed with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, and 307 women developed triple-negative cancer.

The researchers also found a notable association between lower instances of breast cancer higher levels of physical activity. Suffice to say, researchers made correlations between the two, but stopped short of implying causation.

For quite some time, scientists and physicians have been aware of some kind of link between obesity and this specific kind of breast cancer – one theory blamed the higher exposure rates to estrogen found in fat tissue. Postmenopausal women get the majority of their estrogen from fat tissue.

Phipps and her colleagues say the increased insulin-like growth factor and levels of insulin seen in obese people could contribute to the growth of breast tumors. Fat cells may provide an environment conducive to breast cancer cell growth.