Jet Medical Tourism Cites US Study Shows Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Breast Cancer Risk By Jet Medical Tourism on December 13, 2019

Severely obese female patients may not only shed extra pounds with bariatric surgery, but may also be reducing their risk of breast cancer.

According to a 2019 research study published in the prestigious Annals of Surgery journal, weight loss surgery lowers the risk of breast cancer in post-menopausal women by as much as 45 percent, and in pre-menopausal women by 28 percent.

Study involved 72,000 morbidly obese women

Over a period of nearly four years, the researchers compared two groups of female patients who suffered from morbid obesity. The first group included 17,998 women who had undergone weight loss surgery, while the second group included 53,889 women with the same body mass index (BMI) who didn’t.

Both the chosen groups were also similar in terms of age and medical conditions.

Researchers monitored the first group (that chose bariatric surgery) for 48 months, and the non-surgery group for 41 months.

Researchers reported at the end of tracking period that women who had chosen weight loss surgery had a 37 percent lower risk on average of developing breast cancer compared to the women in the non-surgery group.

The detailed findings of this study were published in the Annals of Surgery.

Benefits for both pre- and post-menopausal women

One of the key takeaways from this study was that the benefits of bariatric surgery in terms of reduced breast cancer risk are not limited to post-menopausal women alone.

The results of the study showed that the risk of estrogen receptor (ER positive) cancers was substantially cut down for post-menopausal women. These tumors grow rapidly with the growth of estrogen hormone in a woman’s body.

By contrast, the risk among pre-menopausal women was substantially cut down for ER-negative cancers, which occur more commonly in younger women, and do not depend on estrogen hormone for their growth.

Gastric bypass and gastric sleeve both are effective

Women in the surgery group under this study had mostly chosen either gastric bypass surgery or gastric sleeve surgery (sleeve gastrectomy) for their weight loss. Both procedures showed equally effective outcomes in breast cancer risk reduction.

Experts say that this encouraging study adds to the now expanding body of medical literature that supports cancer risk reduction as a major benefit of bariatric surgery.

Jet Medical Tourism® provides affordable bariatric surgery in Mexico

Jet Medical Tourism® works with some of the top-rated weight loss surgery hospitals and qualified bariatric surgeons in Mexico to help patients from the US and Canada achieve weight loss and restore their health in a safe and affordable way.