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# Weight loss may help premenopausal women cut breast cancer risk
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/weight_loss_breast_cancer_0721120921/
- Published: 2012-07-21T10:20:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:49:05.000Z
- Description: Drawing on two large prevention trials, a Cancer Prevention Research study found obese premenopausal women were 70 percent, and overweight women 59 percent, more likely to develop invasive breast cancer than women with a normal BMI. No such link appeared after menopause.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Cancer, Avoiding Illness, #vivvo-import

By David Liu PHD

Saturday July 21, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Overweight or obese premenopausal women who are older than 35 years of age may be better off losing some weight if they want to cut their risk for invasive breast cancer, according to a new study published online Feb 7, 2012 in Cancer Prevention Research.

The study led by Reena Cecchini of University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and colleagues found obese premenopausal women were 70 percent more likely than lean women, whose body mass indexes were smaller than 25 kg/m2, to develop invasive breast cancer, and overweight premenopausal women were 59 percent more likely to acquire the disease, compared to women who maintained a normal body mass index (BMI).

Cecchini et al. found the associations after they analyzed data from 12,243 women with 253 invasive breast cancer events from the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (P-1) and 19,488 women with 557 events from the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR), two large prevention trials.

Women enrolled in both studies had no known condition at the beginning of the study, but were at high risk for the disease because their Gail scores were equal or greater than 1.66\. Gail score derived from a breast cancer assessment tool is indicative of an individual breast cancer risk. Being overweight or obese was a risk factor for many women in the studies.

Although obesity and overweight were linked to high risk for breast cancer in young women, being overweight or obese was not associated with increased risk for invasive breast cancer among postmenopausal women. This finding could suggest that postmenopausal women may have other greater risk factors affecting their breast cancer risk, which makes the BMI effect insignificant.

In the study, overweight was defined as having a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9 kg/m2 inclusively and obesity was defined as having a BMI equal or greater than 30 kg/m2.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in 220,000 women this year in the United States alone and is expected to kill nearly 40,000 patients in the same year, according to the National Cancer Institute. 

Overweight and obese food consumers are encouraged to find an effective way for themselves to lose weight. Be aware that there are many types of weight loss programs or weight loss tips available, but not all are equally effective. A healthy diet can also help cut risk of breast cancer.