Lean muscle mass helps obese battle cancer

EDMONTON, Alberta, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Lean muscle-mass may give even obese people an advantage in battling cancer, University of Alberta resources said.

The study, published in Lancet Oncology, provides evidence that varying body compositions of cancer patients likely plays a role in survival rates, activity levels during the illness and, potentially, even the reaction to chemotherapy treatment.

Computed tomography images of 250 obese cancer patients were viewed in the study, and researchers said that people with a condition called sarcopenic obesity -- a depletion of lean muscle mass, paired with being severely overweight -- lived an average of 10 months less than their counterparts who were obese, but who had more muscle mass.

They also tended more often to be bedridden and have worse physical function than people who did not have sarcopenic obesity.

"In many cases, people with sarcopenic obesity have as little or sometimes less muscle mass than thin people who look as of they were made of skin and bones," lead author Vickie Baracos, University of Alberta said in a statement.

The findings underscore the importance of including body composition when assessing patient prognosis, Baracos said.