Obesity In Men Can Lead To Male Breast Cancer, Research Suggests | HuffPost Life

Obesity In Men Can Lead To Male Breast Cancer, Research Suggests

PA/The Huffington Post UK

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Being obese increases a man's risk of breast cancer by nearly a third, research has shown.

Other risk factors include enlarged male breasts, and having an extra X chromosome besides the one men normally inherit from their mothers.

Around 400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the UK, but the causes of male breast cancer are poorly understood.

The Male Breast Cancer Pooling Project gathered together data on the disease from studies conducted around the world.

It found that obesity, and several other physical and hormone-related traits, were associated with increased breast cancer risk in men.

The results published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (JNCI) showed that breast cancer risk in men increases with weight.

Clinical obesity, meaning a Body Mass Index of 30 or above, increased the chances of a man developing breast cancer by around 30%.

Story continues below...

10 New Breast Cancer Findings

There Are 4 Major Classes Of Breast Cancer(01 of10)

Results of a massive gene analysis, published last month in the journal Nature, shows that there are four major classes of breast cancer, the Associated Press reported. "With this study, we're one giant step closer to understanding the genetic origins of the four major subtypes of breast cancer," study researcher Matthew Ellis, M.B., B.Chir., Ph.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine and the Siteman Cancer Center, said in a statement. "Now, we can investigate which drugs work best for patients based on the genetic profiles of their tumors," he added in the statement. "For basal-like breast tumors, it's clear they are genetically more similar to ovarian tumors than to other breast cancers. Whether they can be treated the same way is an intriguing possibility that needs to be explored."

Men With Breast Cancer Fare Worse(02 of10)

Men are less likely to get breast cancer than women -- but when they do, it's often deadlier, according to a study presented earlier this year at the American Society of Breast Surgeons meeting. The Associated Press reported that men diagnosed with breast cancer live, on average, two fewer years than women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, and are also more likely to have the breast cancer spread, have larger tumors when the cancer is discovered, and be diagnosed later. (credit:Alamy)

Cadmium Could Raise Breast Cancer Risk(03 of10)

Cadmium -- a toxic metal that can be present in foods like shellfish, root vegetables, offal and cereals -- may raise risk of breast cancer, according to a March 2012 study in the journal Cancer Research. The research included 56,000 women. Researchers were able to analyze about how much cadmium each woman was consuming based on the cadmium-rich foods in her diet. They found that those who consumed the most cadmium had a 21 percent higher breast cancer risk, compared with those who consumed the least cadmium, HuffPost's Catherine Pearson reported. (credit:Alamy)

Sleep May Affect Breast Cancer Risk (04 of10)

Getting six or fewer hours of sleep may raise the risk of recurrent breast cancer among post-menopausal breast cancer patients, according to a study in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. However, this same link was not observed for pre-menopausal breast cancer patients.The findings suggest "that lack of sufficient sleep may cause more aggressive tumors, but more research will need to be done to verify this finding and understand the causes of this association," study researcher Cheryl Thompson, Ph.D. said in the statement. (credit:Alamy)

A Smallpox Virus Could Be A Promising Treatment(05 of10)

A smallpox virus seems to be promising against a hard-to-treat form of breast cancer, called triple-negative breast cancer, according to a study in mice presented at the 2012 Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons."Based upon pathology, we could see that at least 60 percent of the tumors were completely regressed and the other 40 percent had very little areas of tumor cells present with a lot of necrosis, which is a sign that the tumor was responding to therapy," study researcher Dr. Sepideh Gholami, M.D., of Stanford University Medical Center, said in a statement. ABC News pointed out that this kind of breast cancer is notoriously hard to treat because it doesn't respond to other hormonal or immune treatments. (credit:Alamy)

Shift Work May Influence Breast Cancer Risk(06 of10)

Working the night shift is linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, according to two different studies that came out this year.One of them, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, showed that breast cancer risk went up among women who worked the night shift more than twice a week, with the risk being the highest among those who said that they are "morning people" instead of "night people." The Toronto Sun reported that the results of this study confirm the findings of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, which has a list of items and habits that may cause cancer. The IARC considers shift work "possibly carcinogenic."The other study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, showed that breast cancer risk is 30 percent higher for women who work the night shift, with the risk being especially clear among those working night-time jobs for four years, or those who worked the night shift for three or fewer nights a week. (credit:Alamy)

Breast Size May Be Linked With Breast Cancer Risk(07 of10)

The genes that help determine a woman's breast size may also be linked with her breast cancer risk, according to a study published earlier this year in the journal BMC Medical Genetics.Researchers examined the genetic data of 16,000 women to find that seven DNA variations, called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), seem to be linked with breast size -- and three of those SNPs are known to be associated with a person's risk of breast cancer, HuffPost's Catherine Pearson reported. (credit:Alamy)

Exercise Could Help Lower Breast Cancer Risk(08 of10)

Just a little bit of exercise may help to reduce your risk of breast cancer, though the more you move, the better, according to a study in the journal CANCER. Researchers at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill found that postmenopausal or reproductive-age women in their study who exercised the most -- from 10 to 19 hours each week -- had a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer, though exercising less than that was still linked with some protective benefits. "The observation of a reduced risk of breast cancer for women who engaged in exercise after menopause is particularly encouraging given the late age of onset for breast cancer," study researcher Lauren McCullough said in a statement.

Type 2 Diabetes May Raise Breast Cancer Risk (For Some Women)(09 of10)

For post-menopausal women, having Type 2 diabetes may raise the risk of breast cancer, according to a review conducted by the International Prevention Research Institute. "On the one hand, it's thought that being overweight, often associated with Type 2 diabetes, and the effect this has on hormone activity may be partly responsible for the processes that lead to cancer growth," study researcher Peter Boyle, the president of the International Prevention Research Institute, told The Telegraph. "But it's also impossible to rule out that some factors related to diabetes may be involved in the process." (credit:Alamy)

Being Overweight Tied To Worst Breast Cancer Outcomes(10 of10)

Being overweight could lead to worse outcomes from breast cancer, according to a study published August in the journal Cancer. Specifically, the study showed that overweight women who have been treated for breast cancer have a higher risk of recurrence and death, NBC News reported."Obesity seemed to carry a higher risk of breast cancer recurrence and death -- even in women who were healthy at the time that they were diagnosed, and despite the fact that they received the best available chemotherapy and hormone therapy," study researcher Dr. Joseph Sparano, associate chairman of medical oncology at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care, told NBC News. (credit:Alamy)

An association was also seen with gynecomastia, enlarged breast tissue in men, which appeared to be separate from the effect of obesity.

Klinefelter syndrome, the presence of an extra X chromosome in men, was another confirmed risk factor.

Professor Anthony Swerdlow, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London - who led the UK arm of the study, said: "This research brings together data from studies of male breast cancer from around the world to clarify risk factors that have been uncertain.

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"The results suggest that men who are overweight may be at increased risk of male breast cancer.

"We know that body size can be related to hormone levels. Also, hormonal factors may be the reason why patients with Klinefelter syndrome, who have comparatively low levels of testosterone and high levels of oestrogen, have raised breast cancer risks compared with other men.

"Our results suggest the need to investigate further the role of sex hormones in causation of breast cancer in men."

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Dr Matthew Lam, from the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: "We know that hormonal factors play a large part in increasing risk of breast cancer in women but how these factors affect risk in men is not well understood.

"This study provides new insight into the contributing role of sex hormone levels and physical conditions that control them in male breast cancer. "

Breakthrough-funded scientists have previously identified a gene called RAD51B that can cause breast cancer in men.

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