Post-40 weight gain decreases survival.

• Position: Weight management for breast cancer patients - Brief article

Women sometimes feel there is nothing they can do to improve their chances of survival after a breast cancer diagnosis. Yet, there is, according to scientists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill--do not gain weight after age 40. Their study shows premenopausal women who gain more than 35 pounds after age 20--prior to breast cancer diagnosis--are two times less likely to survive the disease, and postmenopausal women who gain more than 29 pounds after age 50 are nearly three times less likely to survive. Maintaining weight was not associated with increased risk.

"Our results demonstrate the importance of weight management, particularly during the perimenopausal and postmenopausal years. Weight gain between the ages of 40 and 50 in particular substantially decreases the likelihood of surviving breast cancer," stresses Rebecca Cleveland, research assistant professor of nutrition.

"Since the number of women...