By David Liu, PHD

Friday Nov 30, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Being obese is not just a matter of lifestyle.   It can boost a life-threatening risk.  A study released in the Nov 20, 2012 issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment suggests that obesity boosts risk for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), a dangerous disease that has a poor prognosis.

M. Pierobon  and C.L. Frankenfeld at Department of Global and Community Health, George Mason University in Fairfax, VA reviewed case-case studies and found obesity was associated with 20% increased risk for triple negative breast cancer.

A review of case - control studies also found those with obesity were 24 percent more likely to be diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.

In the analysis of data from case-case studies, the association between obesity and risk of triple negative breast cancer was only found in prememopausal women.  Obese premenopausal women were 43% more likely to develop the disease.

The researchers concluded "obese women are at a greater risk of presenting with a TNBC than non-obese women, and menopause status may be a mitigating factor. If validated, these findings should be taken into consideration for the development of targeted preventive programs."

Triple-negative breast cancer is a type of breast tumor that is estrogen receptor-negative (ER-), progesterone receptor-negative (PR-), and HER2/neu-negative (HER2-), meaning that all cancer drugs targeting at these receptors can't help treat the disease and because of this there are fewer treatment options for the disease and the prognosis is poor.