ABS ePoster Library

P147
Topic: Risk factors for breast cancer

Introduction: Weight gain is common during breast cancer treatment and associated with poorer outcomes. Obese/overweight patients also exhibit poorer outcomes. BMI (weight-standardised for height (kg/m2)) is commonly used to describe body habitus. However, parameters such as fat mass index (FMI: kg fat mass/m2) and fat free mass index for lean muscle (FFMI) provide greater understanding of body composition changes and may yield additional prognostic information compared to BMI alone since patients may lose muscle and gain fat whilst maintaining BMI. Methods : Data was collated for the first 174 patients recruited into the BeGIN study (REC 10/H0308/48). Body composition measurements were obtained using a SECA mBCA515 bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy analyser. Results: At an individual level, there was a range in FMI for any BMI despite overall correlation at population level between BMI and FMI. Patients >50y were more likely to have a greater BMI and FMI than those ≤50y. Compared to baseline, FMI increased at one year, but BMI was unchanged (p=0.04). Fewer patients received standard anthracycline-taxane sequential chemotherapy as FMI increased, but a greater proportion experienced grade 3 chemo-toxicity. Conclusions: Between baseline and one year, changes in body composition were more evident for FMI than BMI. Patients in the highest FMI tertiles were less likely to receive standard anthracycline-taxane sequential chemotherapy, but more likely to experience chemo-toxicity. Understanding body composition and its changes may offer additional information to BMI alone and predict clinical outcomes including chemotherapy toxicity. This will be prospectively assessed in the Cando3 WCRF funded study.