Waist Circumference as a Tool for Identifying Visceral Fat in Women with Non-Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Abdominal adiposity is associated with tumor development and poor clinical outcomes in breast cancer (BC) and can be identified by the measurement of waist circumference (WC) and visceral adipose tissue (VAT). This study aimed to evaluate the association between waist circumference (WC) and imaging measurement of central adiposity according to age group in women with BC. Abdominal adiposity was assessed by WC and VAT, obtained by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Body mass index (BMI) was assessed. The presence of inflammation was investigated by measuring C-Reactive Protein (CRP) levels. Multivariate linear regression models were applied to verify the association between WC and VAT. The significance level adopted for all tests was 5%. This study included 112 women with a mean age of 55.5 ± 11.4 years. After adjusted models, WC remained associated with VAT and for every centimeter increase in WC, there was an increase of 3.12 cm2 (CI: 2.40 - 3.85; p < 0.001) in VAT. WC was associated with VAT in women with breast cancer, proving to be a simple, fast, and noninvasive approach that can be used as a proxy to identify visceral fat.

Muscle strength is associated with fracture risk obtained by fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) in women with breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Women with breast cancer are at risk for the development of sarcopenia and occurrence of fractures. The initial and periodic screening of these conditions can prevent the risks of disability, poor quality of life, and death. The present study investigated the association between sarcopenia phenotypes and fracture risk, assessed by the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) in women with breast cancer. METHODS: Cross-sectional study. It included women aged between 40 and 80 years, diagnosed with Luminal subtype breast cancer, with time of diagnosis ≤ 12 months, who had not started endocrine therapy, did not have metastasis, had not been treated for another malignancy, and had no recurrences. Sociodemographic, habits and lifestyle, clinical, anthropometric, and body composition variables were considered. Muscle strength, skeletal muscle mass, and physical performance were investigated using handgrip strength (HGS), appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI), and Timed Up and Go test (TUGT), respectively. Fracture risk was assessed using FRAX. Multiple linear regression models were conducted to verify the association between exposure variables and sarcopenia phenotypes. A significance level of p < 0.05 was adopted for all tests using the SPPS 25.0 program. RESULTS: Sixty-two women with a mean age of 58.1 ± 10.4 years were evaluated. Of these, 66.1% self-declared to be non-white, 41.9% and 71.0% did not consume alcohol or smoke, respectively, and 61.3% were insufficiently active. A total of 45.2% had clinical stage II carcinoma and 65.5% had the invasive breast carcinoma histological subtype. There was a predominance of adequacy of HGS (88.7%), ASMI (94.5%), and TUGT (96.8%), as well as low risk of hip fractures (85.5%) and major fractures (82.3%). HGS remained associated with FRAX hip fractures (p = 0.007) and FRAX major fractures (p = 0.007) in the adjusted models, while ASMI was associated with body mass (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Low muscle strength was the sarcopenia phenotype that remained associated with fracture risk in women with breast cancer, independently of sociodemographic factors, level of physical activity, and clinical factors. In addition to the assessment of probable sarcopenia, this measurement may point out the risk of fractures.