now they are moving in on how/why of weight gain during chemotherapy 4 breast cancere

[AlaskaAngel]

Hi Chelee,

WARNING: My "theory" is NOT fact about this... just simple observation....but my "guess" is that younger patients tend to be less hormone receptor positive, and their metabolism is not slowed down, and maybe that means the cancer cells are also not slowed down as much, and they tend to have more recurrence from that, whereas older patients tend to be more hormone receptor positive (and get more benefit from hormonal treatment) but they recur farther out because their metabolism is slowed down almost to a stop so they are gaining weight and the fat they gain is increasing the inflammation that encourages cancer, and the cancer is feeding off the food they continue to take in at the same level they did before their metabolism slowed down.

I wonder if the others who posted about losing weight (or not gaining any) also were young at time of dx and tx and possibly not very HR+. (Young being under the age of 55.)

A.A.

[Rich66]

Just want to throw in here that there is plenty to support the notion that cancer therapy messes with sleep patterns and circadian rhythms. Messed up sleep tends to mess with metabolism.

[AlaskaAngel]

Yes, it isn't like there is "one" answer to it all, with "unnatural" treatments being inserted into the mix and confusing the picture. I believe vitamin D also works to slow metabolism. But all of this centers around metabolism, and pardon me for being such a broken record, but...

Breasts are endocrine glands and we need endocrinologists involved deeply in interpreting breast cancer because breast cancer is an endocrine disease. We need people who know how the endocrine system is put together and how it works, and we need people who have a background in something besides surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to help get us back on track with less misery and less expense and more success.

P.S. I do think that one factor that should be high on the criteria list for evaluating breast cancer risk for recurrence should be BMR.

[suzanne38301]

ngel- I am 37 and just finished chemo. I am er/pr+ and HER2+. During Chemo I gained about 15lbs. But have since lost 8 lbs since June 1st. I was underweight before chemo and kinda liked the added lbs. What worries me is that for a year prior to my dx I was constantly losing weight and the docs could not figure it out so in my mind I think that weight loss=cancer. Which I don't really know if that is true. Is it?..... The more information I read the more scared I get about this stuff coming back.
Suzanne