Dx'd after quick weight loss ?

trigeek · December 2007

trigeek · December 2007

Hi,

I just realized that a lot of gals(including myself) had lost substantial weight(intentionally)quickly, the year before getting diagnosed with BC.

Personally I know 4 gals who are in the same situation and I had lost 35 pounds the year before my diagnosis.

My husbands take of it is that majority of gals lose and gain weight so it is just a coincidence..

Who here has lost a lot of weight within the year before their diagnosis ?

Note: I am posting this question to several threads to cover all grounds.

tooyoungtohavebc · December 2007

I am in that club. I went on a diet and lost 50lbs in the year prior to being diagnosed. It is one of the reasons I knew something was wrong. One boob was shrinking and the other one was staying the same size. I had it checked out in Jan O5 because I had a hard mass (no real lump) and the NP told me that I probably had a hormonal shift and not to worry. A few months later I lost another 15lbs and the one boob was still bigger than the other so I went back and they told me stage 3.

SISKimberly · December 2007

Weight loss,rapid or not, in my opinion, has nothing to do with getting bc, but potentially with its growth pattern. ER+ cancers are fed by estrogen. Fat produces estrogen, so gaining might help speed it along, but a weight loss would slow it down, I imagine.

Personally, I gained about 20 pounds over the past two years, and I was experiencing premenopausal symptoms and didn't want to take chemical hormones, so bought into the bioidentical hormone craze-yes, they tested my hormone levels- for about a year during that weight gain. Between those added 'natural' hormones and my weight gain...the cancer cells that had not yet met up to create a tumor (or three in my case) that were already within were fed aplenty. I can't prove that scientifically,but it is interesting that I added both 'natural' bioidentical hormones-estrogen and progesterone creams to my morning and evening regime, and my cancer is both estrogen and progesterone positive.

Just my humble opinion.

Your SIS (Sister In Survival)

Kimberly

trigeek · December 2007

Kim I hear you, oh how I loathe the fact that we lived in a condo right under a powerline when i was a teenager, we'll never know what created 'The Perfect Storm' to fuel the bc and we'll always wonder.

.

My weight has yoyoed 30 pounds since I had my first kid. Maybe that gain/loss act also was bad.

.

Too young, just when you thought that you were taking really good care of your body getting this slap the face was probably a shock(at least for me it was )

.

I just want to see whether this is a trend because unfortunately I seem to be on the same path now ( gained all the weight I had lost.. and will try to take that off once my treatments are over)

debbbyb · December 2007

I am in that a club. I just lost 27 pounds in the past year. I did it the right way the healthiest way! I think that I would have never found the cancer as early as I did if I had not lost the weight. But I knew because I was doing great exercising feeling the best ever that a shoe was gonna drop. I am trying to stay positive. I had lumpectomy on friday Dec. 23. they took 4 nodes and said the cancer was very small so hopefully margins are clear and I can get on with the treatment and back on track. I was more up=beat before but am feeling realy sad now. I really think that everything will be ok, but am feeling I had finally gotten myself where I wanted to be and now gonna start all ovear again. I guess that is better than not being able to start over again. Thanks for listening.

TenderIsOurMight · December 2007

Debbyb, we'll be keeping you in our thoughts, hoping margins and nodes are negative too. You're in the waiting stage before finding results, and it is positively one of the scariest times in eternity. Hang in there and post away. Your signature suggests an early, treatable cancer.

On this weight loss/gain thing, I had some weight gain two years or so prior to diagnosis, after having lost weight the 3 years before (20 pounds I think). I'm ER+/PR+. Weight gain isn't great for ER+ tumors.

So, I've been wondering if the 15 pounds I"ve put on since 2003 is the reason I don't have many hot flashes on the Arimidex. That's scary. But sure enough, if I pull my weight down by 6 pounds or so, I immediately start having more hot flashes. So estrogen up, estrogen down.

So, for we ER+ ladies, weight loss is good, or at least weight maintenance. I read for every 20 pound gain we raise our recurrence risk 14%. Arggghh....

I had 3 chocolate chip cookies last night.

Tender

PSK07 · December 2007

No weight loss for me. I've been on weight watchers forever, but the loss had stalled out. Since dx, I've regained every pound I lost. Frown

Looking forward to restarting and getting back down to a reasonable weight. I want to further cut that recurrence rate. But the sandbakkels look really, really good...

tooyoungtohavebc · December 2007

yeah the weight thing and treatment is tough. I gained 30lbs with my first round of chemo (Ben and jerry's every day and steriods did me in, but hey ice cream is all that tasted good to me) but then I took that weight back off. Have been much more careful this time around with chemo (thank goodness no steriods this time) and have only gained about 10lbs in 6 months, but if I take my water pills that number comes down a bit.

I purposefully lost all of that weight back in 2004 because I felt like I was going to start having major health issues if I did not do it. And then I get cancer anyway...oh well, my family was not blessed with the best health genes. Both of my parents passed away young (mom 47 from uterian cancer and dad at 51 from alzheimers).

dcbkc · December 2007

Hi to all. I'm new to posting but having been reading along. I was dx in Aug., had surgery 8/31 and started rad on 9/24, finishing 11/2. I lost about 10 lbs prior, in the healthy way -- less eating, more exercise. I hope that had nothing to do with it though. Mine was very small -- microscopic calcifications, DCIS. I'm still trying to come to terms with it all.

Thanks for listening.

D

trigeek · December 2007

Let me ty to clarify what I was trying to say. I certainly am not suspecting that weight loss causes bc, however I had lost about 35 pounds in 5.5 months which was kind of fast- (I never starved myself, did not take any weight loss drugs just ate healthy and worked out a lot the pounds just came off), I was just wondering whether quick weight loss took a toll on the immune system.. however I was also told that the BC was there even before I started my weight loss for a couple of years ( and not to stray from the subject but I had mammos and u/s diligently every year and NO they did NOT see this sneaky bastard till it was 2.5 cm )

D I had my bilateral mast on 8/31 and my last treatment will be on January 10.

And sigh.. I have gained 25 of the 35 that I had lost Tender now you scared me but I just can not stay away from the Peppermint Bark, and maple fudge and gingerbread cookies and .....

trigeek · December 2007

Hmm there were 9 updates to this thread.. where did they disappear ?

Shirlann · December 2007

Hi gals, I sure did not lose any weight before diagnosis, but I can tell you that I know for sure your immune system is compromised in almost any diet. It is hard to just eat veggies and fish, so sometimes, especially on a long diet, we just eat the junk.

I know, I know, this is silly, but since I am a veteran of at least 25 diets (I am not kidding) the last one was one year long, I know that I get very tired of salads, so I don't eat much of anything.

This leads to a tiny form of malnutrition, and that can definitely let the cancer "wake up". WHO KNOWS FOR SURE? Not me, but I bet it is true.

Gentle hugs, Shirlann

libby · December 2007

Hi all - What an interesting conversation. I actually lost weight 2 years before diagnosis - my blood pressure was going up with my weight and I had such high cardiac family risk factors that I knew I had to do something. I lost about 25 lbs (for the first time ever) on the South Beach Diet, by actually eating healthy and moderate exercise, now I have normal BMI. It was not a crash diet by any means. I went off my blood pressure medication, because my blood pressure dropped to normal. I trained this year for the Danskin Triathlon and participated in August. In September I was diagnosed with DCIS (there's another irony, after the Danskin). What I am reading about breast cancer would indicate that lower BMI, reducing fat around the middle, is actually preventive for breast cancer. The only explanation that I can come up with is that the cancer was there before the weight loss. I guess then the question is also whether ER/PR negative cancers respond to the estrogen in fat (since mine may be negative). It is interesting to see how many of you have recently lost weight - guess we all want an explanation of why this is happening now, when we are trying to be healthier.

Anonymous · December 2007

I'm in this mix. I started dropping weight in January of 2007 (if not a bit beforehand) and was diagnosed in March. When people would comment, I would just joke that I wasn't 'able to afford to feed myself,' and didn't think much else of it since I wasn't making any type of focused effort to actually loose weight.

Shirlann · December 2007

Normally, breast cancer is 8 to 12 years old when large enough to be found by any means. This says that we have all been growing it a long while. I read this in Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book. So I, of course, am not positive.

But this could be just coincidence, since most women are either on a diet, thinking about it or just off one!

Gentle hugs, Shirlann

maxgirl · December 2007

Interesting topic!

I lost 35 pounds from 2003-2005, starting with a diet that knocked off 12 pounds quickly, but then just changing the way I ate and exercising. I'd been at a plateau for more than a year when I found the lump last December.

I deliberately lost that weight slowly because a friend and I had noticed several people who had lost large amounts of weight and then were diagnosed with cancer, and not just bc.

My total cholesterol dropped from 195 to 165 over the time I lost weight. And where did that cholesterol go? Into gallstones, which were no fun at all! Luckily no surgery.

I know fat binds up estrogen, so I wondered if losing the weight released the estrogen into my system and fed the cancer, although I'm triple neg.

I read about the WINS study right after I was diagnosed, so went on a low-fat diet and lost 12 pounds before chemo, then 5-7 pounds from being sick during chemo, then another 10 from going back to a low fat diet after chemo, but before my appetite and tastebuds returned. I couldn't eat enough bulk to make up for the loss of fat calories, and I felt malnourished.

My appetite returned with a vengeance in time for the holidays. Now I've got to work at not eating and keeping down the fat intake, just in case it does make a difference in lowering the risk of recurrence.

Dx'd after quick weight loss ?

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