We investigated how often adults who survived acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as children experience weight problems and whether these issues vary between Switzerland and North America. By understanding these challenges, doctors can provide better support, promoting healthy diets, active lifestyles, and regular exercise to reduce weight-related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.
Lay Summary of Fabiën Belle and Christina Schindera’s Study
What did we want to find out with our study?
Cancer treatment, including radiation to the head and certain medications such as steroids might cause overweight and obesity. Even adults who have had cancer as a child can have problems with their weight. We wanted to know how often adults who survived acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as a child have weight problems. We also wanted to know if some survivors were more often overweight or obese than others and if this differed between Switzerland and North America. We were interested in ALL, as it’s cancer treatment may lead especially to weight gain.
Why is this important?
If doctors know more about weight problems after treatment for ALL, they can help those affected better. You can do something about it! For example, a healthy diet, an active lifestyle, and regular exercise help to reduce weight problems. It can also help to reduce health problems linked to overweight, such as diabetes and heart disease.
What did we exactly do?
We sent questionnaires to adult survivors in Switzerland or North America. We asked for their current weight and height so we could calculate their body mass index. We asked siblings of former childhood cancer patients the same questions. We wanted to know if the number of survivors who suffer from overweight differ between countries and between survivors and their siblings. We included 1287 North American and 429 Swiss ALL survivors, and 2034 North American and 678 Swiss siblings of survivors.
What did we find out and what does this mean?
ALL survivors living in North America were more often overweight and obese (59%) than ALL survivors living in Switzerland (31%). ALL survivors were slightly more overweight than their siblings. Older people, people of non-Hispanic Black origin, and people with low incomes were most likely to have weight problems. We saw that cancer treatment with steroids or radiation to the head had little effect on weight gain after ALL treatment.
This means, that we need more awareness and preventive programs against overweight and obesity. Programs should be made not only for former patients, but also for the general populations, as siblings were nearly equally affected by weight problems. Being overweight or obese seems to rather depend on someone’s social status and cultural background and not on former cancer treatment.
Reference: Belle FN, Schindera C, Ansari M, Armstrong GT, Beck-Popovic M, Howell R, Leisenring WM, Meacham LR, Rössler J, Spycher BD, Tonorezos E, von der Weid NX, Yasui Y, Oeffinger KC, Kuehni CE. Risk factors for overweight and obesity after childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in North America and Switzerland: A comparison of two cohort studies. Cancer Med. 2023 Oct; 12(20): 20423-20436. doi: 10.1002/cam4.6588. PMCID: PMC10652345.
You can find the full publication here.
Contact:
Fabiën N. Belle (fabien.belle@unibe.ch)
Christina Schindera (christina.schindera@unibe.ch)