Importance Obesity is associated with a higher risk of recurrence, mortality, comorbidities, treatment-related adverse effects, and poor quality of life in patients with breast cancer. Scalable interventions are needed to promote weight loss in this population. Objective To evaluate the impact of a remotely delivered weight loss intervention (WLI) on weight change at 1 year in patients with breast cancer and obesity and to explore factors associated with weight change. Design, Setting, and Participants The Breast Cancer Weight Loss trial is a phase 3, randomized clinical trial evaluating the impact of a telephone-based WLI on invasive disease–free survival and other outcomes in women with obesity and early breast cancer at 637 sites across the US and Canada. Participants were enrolled to the study between August 2016 and February 2021. Participants included women with stage II to III, ERBB2 -negative breast cancer and a body mass index (BMI) of 27 or higher. Interventions Participants were randomized to a 2-year, telephone-based WLI plus health education or health education alone control group. Main Outcome and Measures The primary end point for this prespecified secondary analysis was weight change at 1 year. Weight was measured at baseline and 1 year, and changes in weight were compared between groups. Weight change was evaluated with a linear mixed-effects model including treatment group, weight over time, a time-by-group interaction, menopausal status, race and ethnicity, and hormone receptor status. Results A total of 3180 women with breast cancer and BMI of 27 and higher were included in the study; 1591 were randomized to the WLI and 1589 to the control group. At baseline, the mean (SD) age of participants was 53.4 (10.6), and the mean (SD) BMI was 34.4 (5.6). The racial and ethnic breakdown included 406 (12.8%) Black, 231 (7.3%) Hispanic or Latino, 2906 (91.4%) non-Hispanic, and 2555 (80.3%) White participants. WLI participants lost a mean of 4.3 kg (95% CI 3.9-4.6 kg), or 4.7% (95% CI, 4.3%-5.0%) of baseline body weight at 1 year vs control participants, who gained 0.9 kg (95% CI, 0.5-1.3 kg), or 1.0% (95% CI 0.1%-1.4%) of baseline body weight ( P < .001). Participants randomized to WLI experienced significant weight loss (vs control group participants) across demographic and tumor factors. WLI effect differed significantly by menopausal status, with postmenopausal participants having greater weight loss than premenopausal participants, and by race and ethnicity, with Black and Hispanic participants having less weight loss compared to other races and ethnicities. Conclusions and Relevance In this secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial, a telephone-based WLI induced significant weight loss in patients with breast cancer with overweight and obesity across demographic and treatment factors. Further follow-up of the Breast Cancer Weight Loss trial will evaluate whether the WLI improves disease outcomes. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02750826
Association of lifestyle factors and pathological characteristics in patients with early breast cancer and overweight/obesity: Results from the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) trial.
561 Background: Obesity and other lifestyle factors are associated with breast cancer (BC) risk and outcomes. These relationships appear to vary in pre- vs postmenopausal women. Here we explore associations between pathological features, diet quality and physical activity (PA) in patients (pts) with BC enrolled in the BWEL (Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology A011401) trial, stratifying for menopausal status. Methods: BWEL is a phase III trial evaluating the impact of a weight loss intervention on disease outcomes in 3180 pts with stage II-III HER2– BC and body mass index ≥27 kg/m 2 . The first 542 BWEL pts underwent assessment of PA (7-Day PA Recall) and diet (24-hour Diet Recall) at enrollment. Healthy Eating Index 2020 (HEI) score (0-100, higher value = healthier diet) and minutes/week (min/wk) of moderate/vigorous PA (MVPA) were calculated. Estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) expression level (%) were abstracted from pathology reports. Analyses of links between HEI score, MVPA min/wk, % ER/PR, stratified by menopausal status, were conducted using t-tests; differential associations by menopausal status used linear regression models with interaction term. Results: In 523 pts with available pathology data, 76.5% had ER/PR+ BC, 56.2% were postmenopausal. Median HEI score was 50.1 (range 18.1-96.4), median MVPA min/wk was 0 (range 0-630), median time from diagnosis to enrollment was 10.0 months (range 2.4-13.1). In postmenopausal pts, higher diet quality was linked to increased % ER and PR (HEI above vs below median, mean % ER 78.0 vs 66.1, p=0.012; mean % PR 57.7 vs 43.1, p=0.004). The relationship between HEI score and % ER/PR differed significantly by menopausal status (interaction term of menopausal status and % ER: p=0.006; and % PR: p=0.012); there were no significant associations between HEI scores and % ER/PR in premenopausal pts. There were no significant associations between PA and % ER/PR. Conclusions: Healthier diet was associated with higher % ER and PR in postmenopausal pts with BC, but no relationship was seen in premenopausal pts. These data suggest that lifestyle factors may influence BC pathologic features related to outcomes in older women. Support: U10CA180821, U10CA180882, UG1CA189823, U24CA196171, https://acknowledgments.alliancefound.org . Clinical trial information: NCT02750826 . % ER mean (SD) p value % PR mean (SD) p value Post-Menopausal HEI* score≤50.1 [n=134]>50.1 [n=156] 66.1 (43.3)78.0 (36.8) 0.012 43.1 (41.8)57.7 (41.0) 0.004 MVPA † min/wk0 [n=147]≥1 [n=147] 74.5 (39.3)70.3 (41.2) 0.37 50.0 (41.8)53.0 (42.0) 0.41 Pre-Menopausal HEI* score≤50.1 [n=124]>50.1 [n=103] 70.5 (38.5)65.5 (43.0) 0.15 53.5 (41.1)49.1 (43.0) 0.43 MVPA † min/wk0 [n=112]≥1 [n=113] 66.3 (41.0)66.3 (41.2) 0.99 49.5 (41.4)52.6 (42.7) 0.59 *Healthy Eating Index. † Moderate/Vigorous Physical Activity.
Social Isolation and Incident Heart Failure Hospitalization in Older Women: Women’s Health Initiative Study Findings
Background The association of social isolation or lack of social network ties in older adults is unknown. This knowledge gap is important since the risk of heart failure (HF) and social isolation increase with age. The study examines whether social isolation is associated with incident HF in older women, and examines depressive symptoms as a potential mediator and age and race and ethnicity as effect modifiers. Methods and Results This study included 44 174 postmenopausal women of diverse race and ethnicity from the WHI (Women's Health Initiative) study who underwent annual assessment for HF adjudication from baseline enrollment (1993–1998) through 2018. We conducted a mediation analysis to examine depressive symptoms as a potential mediator and further examined effect modification by age and race and ethnicity. Incident HF requiring hospitalization was the main outcome. Social isolation was a composite variable based on marital/partner status, religious ties, and community ties. Depressive symptoms were assessed using CES‐D (Center for Epidemiology Studies‐Depression). Over a median follow‐up of 15.0 years, we analyzed data from 36 457 women, and 2364 (6.5%) incident HF cases occurred; 2510 (6.9%) participants were socially isolated. In multivariable analyses adjusted for sociodemographic, behavioral, clinical, and general health/functioning; socially isolated women had a higher risk of incident HF than nonisolated women (HR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.08–1.41). Adding depressive symptoms in the model did not change this association (HR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.07–1.40). Neither race and ethnicity nor age moderated the association between social isolation and incident HF. Conclusions Socially isolated older women are at increased risk for developing HF, independent of traditional HF risk factors. Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov ; Unique identifier: NCT00000611.