(Press-News.org) (MEMPHIS, Tenn. - May 11, 2015) Childhood cancer survivors - especially those whose treatment included brain irradiation or chemotherapy with glucocorticoids - are 14 percent more likely to be obese than their healthy peers. The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital study appears today in the journal Cancer.
Of the 1,996 childhood cancer survivors in this study, 36.2 percent had a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kilograms per meters squared or more, which qualifies as obese. That was 14 percent greater than the expected prevalence based on federal health survey data of a comparison group of U.S. residents.
Among the strongest predictor of obesity in survivors was childhood obesity, which is also a strong predictor of adult obesity in the general public. Survivors who were obese when their pediatric cancer was discovered were almost five times more likely than other survivors to be obese when their BMI was calculated for this study.
Other obesity risk factors were age and childhood cancer treatment. Survivors who were ages 30 and older when their BMI was calculated were more likely than younger survivors to be obese. Also, 47 percent of survivors who received brain irradiation as part of their treatment were obese, compared to 29.4 percent of survivors who received other therapies. The risk increased for survivors whose cancer was diagnosed when they were younger than age 4 and whose treatment included glucocorticoids.
In comparison, survivors treated with chest, abdominal or pelvic irradiation were about half as likely as other survivors to be obese.
"The high prevalence of obesity in cancer survivors is of great concern and underscores the need to develop more effective counseling and weight-loss interventions for this growing population," said first author Carmen Wilson, Ph.D., a research associate in the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control.
Corresponding author Kirsten Ness, Ph.D., a member of St. Jude Epidemiology and Cancer Control, added: "Childhood cancer survivors are known to be prone to developing chronic disease. Obesity just adds to that risk."
In the general public, obesity is associated with an increased risk of premature death as well as cancer, heart disease and other chronic health problems. St. Jude researchers are working on more effective weight management strategies for childhood cancer survivors, some possibly starting shortly after the cancer diagnosis.
The current study is one of the first to explore how genetics may impact obesity in childhood cancer survivors and the first to scan the entire genome for small variations in DNA that may influence the risk of treatment-related obesity.
Researchers identified four regions of genetic variation associated with a greater likelihood of obesity following brain irradiation, a therapy used to treat brain tumors in some patients, but no longer used to treat St. Jude patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The genetic regions identified were in and around genes that have been implicated in nervous system development. The genes are FAM155A, SOX11, CDH18 and GLRA3.
"The results must be verified, but the findings suggest that variations in genes responsible for neural growth, repair and connectivity may modify the risk of obesity in childhood cancer survivors treated with cranial irradiation," Wilson said. "Understanding the genetic basis of why certain survivors are more vulnerable to treatment-induced health problems may help us identify high-risk patients and develop strategies to reduce or better manage their risk."
Information about diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors that influence obesity was not available for study participants.
The average survivor in this study was 32 years old and almost 25 years beyond a cancer diagnosis, making this among the most comprehensive efforts yet to understand obesity in childhood cancer survivors. The research was part of the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (St. Jude LIFE), which brings cancer survivors treated at St. Jude back to the hospital for several days of health screenings and other assessments. St. Jude LIFE is the centerpiece of the hospital's ongoing efforts to improve medical care and the quality of life for current and future childhood cancer survivors.
Treatment-related risk factors help to explain the high rate of obesity among childhood ALL survivors. In this study, 43 percent of the ALL survivors were obese, which is higher than the 19 to 32 percent reported in previous research.
The study is one of the largest yet involving survivors of pediatric solid tumors. "We found that the frequency of obesity in solid tumors survivors was higher than had been previously reported," Wilson said. With the exception of female survivors of kidney cancer, more than 25 percent of solid tumor survivors in this study were obese.
INFORMATION:
The other study authors are Wei Liu, Jun J. Yang, Guolian Kang, Rohit Ojha, Geoffrey Neale, Deo Kumar Srivastava, James Gurney, Melissa Hudson and Leslie Robison, all of St. Jude.
The research is funded in part by a grant (CA021765) from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health and ALSAC.
St. Jude Media Relations Contacts
Carrie Strehlau
Desk: (901) 595-2295
Cell: (901) 297-9875
carrie.strehlau@stjude.org
Summer Freeman
Desk: (901) 595-3061
Cell: (901) 297-9861
summer.freeman@stjude.org
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to increase the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent in the next decade. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food--because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow St. Jude at @stjuderesearch.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn. - May 11, 2015) Researchers have identified three genes that play a pivotal role in the brain tumor choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), a discovery that lays the groundwork for more effective treatment of this rare, often fatal cancer. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists led the study, which appears today in the journal Cancer Cell.
The genes - TAF12, NFYC and RAD54L - are involved in DNA repair and regulation. Researchers showed that CPC often has at least one extra copy of each gene and demonstrated that the genes work cooperatively to launch ...
A new study finds that men with prostate cancer that has spread to nearby lymph nodes, who have a significant risk of dying from the disease, can benefit from the addition of radiation therapy to treatments that block the effects of testosterone. The findings imply that the almost half of patients with node-positive disease nationwide who this study found had not received combination therapy were not receiving the treatment that could best control their tumor and possibly save their lives. The report from investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer ...
EAST LANSING, Mich. - When it comes to winning evolutionary fitness races, the tortoise once again prevails over the hare.
In the current issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of BEACON scientists centered at Michigan State University found that limiting migrations among populations of bacteria produced better adaptations.
The cost, however, was that the bacteria evolved slower. Taking your time, however, isn't always a bad thing, said Joshua Nahum, MSU biocomputational research associate.
"We name this the Tortoise-Hare pattern, as it is ...
Achieving sustainability requires a sophisticated understanding of continuously evolving resource, production, and consumption systems that make up society's relationship to nature. In a special new issue, Yale's Journal of Industrial Ecology illustrates how the field is increasingly turning to complexity science for tools and insights in its pursuit of reduced environmental impacts.
In the special issue, "Advances in Complex Adaptive Systems and Industrial Ecology," a group of international researchers show how integration of complex adaptive system into the study of ...
May 11, 2015 -- (BRONX, NY) -- A survey of more than 1,000 U.S. adults has found that misperceptions about miscarriage and its causes are widespread. Results of the survey, conducted by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Health System, show that feelings of guilt and shame are common after a miscarriage and that most people erroneously believe that miscarriages are rare. The findings were published online today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Nearly one million miscarriages occur in the U.S. each year. Miscarriages ...
May 11, 2015 -- Ongoing efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the population impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) are documented in the May/June issue of The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
"This special issue draws attention to the need for strategies to prevent TBI and to lessen the substantial physical, psychological, economic, and social effects among people who experience it," write co-editors Jeneita M. Bell, MD, MPH ...
As the nation observes the May 17 anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that ended racial segregation in public schools, a new study has found that desegregated schooling is tied to better performance for certain cognitive abilities in older African American Adults.
This research is published in an article titled "Education Desegregation and Cognitive Change in African American Older Adults," appearing in the May 2015 issue of The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.
"Our findings suggest that there is a slight, but statistically ...
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Treatments used by traditional healers in Nigeria have inspired scientists at Northwestern University to synthesize four new chemical compounds that could one day lead to better therapies for people with psychiatric disorders.
In a paper published online in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the scientists detail how they created these natural compounds by completing the first total syntheses of two indole alkaloids -- alstonine and serpentine. These alkaloids, found in various plant species used by healers in Nigeria to treat people ...
LOS ANGELES (May 11, 2015) - The new 9-valent human papillomavirus vaccine, can potentially prevent 80 percent of cervical cancers in the United States, if given to all 11- or 12-year-old children before they are exposed to the virus.
In addition to protecting against 80 percent of cervical cancers, the new 9-Valent human papillomavirus vaccine, which includes seven cancer causing HPV-types - 16,18,31,33,45,52 and 58 - has the potential to protect against nearly 19,000 other cancers diagnosed in the United States, including anal, oropharyngeal and penile cancers. This ...
HECTOR, N.Y. (May 11, 2015): Research by the U.S. Forest Service at the Finger Lakes National Forest (FLNF) is exploring whether native trees can restore a degraded stream corridor and whether degraded stream corridors can help one of those native trees -- the American elm -- stage a comeback.
"Forest Service research is a vital part of keeping our rural and urban forests healthy, sustainable and more resilient to disturbances now and for future generations," said Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory. ...
