Obesity is an independent factor that negatively affects both disease progression and overall survival in women with ovarian cancer compared with women who have normal body weight, according to an article published online August 28 by the journal Cancer.

“This study is the first to identify weight as an independent factor in ovarian cancer in disease progression and overall survival, suggesting that there is an element in the fat tissue itself that influences the outcome of this disease in obese women,” said Andrew Li, MD, the study’s principal investigator.

Li and his American colleagues examined data from 216 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer to identify relationships between obesity, ovarian cancer, tumor biology and outcome.

Comparison of obese women (35 of 216) with ideal-weight women (108 of 216) showed 29 percent of the obese women and 10 percent of normal-weight women had localized disease. However, obesity was shown to have a significant effect on both recurrence and mortality of women with advanced disease. The cellular characteristics of the tumors found in the two groups also appeared to be different.

“While further molecular studies are warranted, our study suggests that fat tissue excretes a hormone or protein that causes ovarian cancer cells to grow more aggressively,” said Li. “The next steps will be to examine this relationship more closely, and to determine the exact biological mechanisms that influence tumor growth in ovarian cancer.”