The Effect of Obesity on the Time to Recurrence in Ovarian Cancer: A Retrospective Study

Introduction/BackgroundThe objective of this study was to examine whether obesity affects the time to recurrence in primary epithelial ovarian cancer.Patients and MethodsA multicenter retrospective chart review was performed between 2004 and 2009. Three hundred seventy patients were eligible for analysis. Demographic and clinicopathological variables and treatment-related data were collected. Women with a body mass index (BMI) > 30 were categorized as obese. The time to recurrence was quantified in terms of months. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using log-rank testing.ResultsOne hundred thirty (35%) obese patients were compared with 240 (65%) nonobese patients. A recurrence was documented in 125 (47.9%) nonobese patients and 49 (37.7%) obese patients. Time to recurrence between both BMI groups was identical, at 15 months (P = 1.0). The progression-free survival was similar in obese and nonobese subjects (P = .118).ConclusionObesity does not affect the recurrence time in patients with primary ovarian cancer.