LOS ANGELES, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say obesity is an important factor contributing to chemotherapy resistance and increasing relapse rates among children with leukemia.
Researchers led by Dr. Steven Mittelman, an assistant professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, found obesity is associated with increased incidence and mortality of many types of cancer and leukemia is the most common cancer in children.
Given the increasing prevalence of obesity worldwide, the scientists said their findings could have important implications for cancer treatment and may help explain the increased leukemia relapse rate in obese patients.
"Obesity could increase cancer incidence and mortality through a variety of ways," Mittelman said. "It may impair the immune system's ability to stop cancer, or predispose cells to become cancerous. Once you have cancer, and if you are obese, the fat cells themselves may impair the ability of chemotherapy to fight cancerous cells."
The research appears in the online early edition of the journal Cancer Research.
