Obesity linked to poor outcomes in leukaemia treatment

As the obesity crisis in the United States grows, scientists are concentrating on how body weight can affect health outcomes. According to recent research published in Blood Advances, AYAs with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) may experience inferior treatment outcomes if their body mass index (BMI) is higher. This study clarified how weight affects treatment side effects and results and urges more research into how weight affects how well various ALL chemotherapy regimens work.
Obesity will be a major public health issue in the United States by 2020, when 40% of the population will be fat. The study's findings suggest that obesity, as shown by a high BMI, may have a detrimental effect on how effectively AYAs respond to ALL treatment regimens.
“We have known for roughly fifteen years that obesity affects survival in pediatric patients treated for ALL, and more recently, we are recognizing a similar relationship in adult populations,” explained Shai Shimony, MD, an advanced fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the corresponding study’s lead author. “But we wanted more granular data on this, to understand why this correlation exists, and how dependent it is on age.”
Researchers gathered information from 388 AYAs who were receiving pediatric Dana-Farber Consortium ALL treatment between 2008 and 2021. These AYAs ranged in age from 15 to 50 years, with a mean age of 24 years.
In total, 53.3% of AYAs included in the study had a normal BMI, while 46.6% were classified as overweight or obese. Notably, patients with an overweight or obese BMI exhibited a higher rate of non-relapse mortality (11.7% versus 2.8%) a lower event-free survival rate (63% versus 77% at 4 years), and a worse overall survival (64% versus 83%) compared to those with normal BMIs. It is important to note that the study found equivalent overall survival among younger (15-29) and older (30-50) AYAs with normal BMI (83% versus 85%, respectively), which is an incredibly important finding, as age is often considered an adverse prognostic feature in ALL.