Recurrence of breast cancer. Obesity, tumor size, and axillary lymph node metastases

Substantially different conclusions have been reached by several studies about relationships between mammary cancer and obesity. We studied retrospectively 106 consecutive patients who underwent mastectomy for breast cancer. We found no association between obesity per se and the frequency or time of recurrence. Our sample did reaffirm that recurrence of breast cancer is related to tumor size and nodal status. Obesity was similarly related to tumor size and nodal status. However, we could not confirm prior findings that obese patients with pathologically similar breast tumors had a poor prognosis.