New research has found that women who gain weight in early adulthood are at a decreased risk of breast cancer before menopause.
A new study, which features in the International Journal of Cancer, has found that women who gain weight from early adulthood are at a reduced risk of developing breast cancer before they reach menopause.
The study builds on previous research, which found that women who weighed more as young adults had a reduced risk of premenopausal breast cancer.
The World Health Organization (WHO) note that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, among whom it accounts for the highest number of cancer-related deaths.
According to statistics that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute compiled, 41,487 women died of breast cancer in the United States in 2016, the latest year for which there are records.
The present study explored the previous findings in more detail, aiming to discover whether gaining weight from early adulthood (aged 18–24 years) up to the age of between 40 and the early 50s also affected a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer before menopause.
Previously this had been difficult to determine because of the relatively low rates of breast cancer in younger women.
The study looked at data from 628,463 women from many separate studies around the world. It divided these women into six age groups, gathered information on their weight at a minimum of two different ages, and followed them for an average of 10.1 years.
The study analyzed a significant amount of additional information about the women to account for possible confounding factors and to enabl