Gut Bacteria and Weight Gain After Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer Identified in a New Study

Roughly 30 percent of breast cancer patients who undergo chemotherapy treatment gain weight, although it is not clear why such an occurrence happens in some women though not in others.

Aside from weight gain, this cancer treatment is also known for its ability to increase the danger of high blood pressure and glucose intolerance, a prediabetes condition.

Weight gain after chemo may have been a familiar phenomenon; the mechanisms underlying these procedures have remained unknown.

A new study that the BMC Medicine journal recently published suggests that but bacteria are partly accountable for metabolic changes that result in weight gain after chemotherapy treatment.

This work was initiated by Galilee Medical Center's Director of Oncology, Dr. Ayelet Shai, who led the research together with Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University's gastrointestinal bacteria expert, Professor Omry Koren.

ALSO READ: FDA Announces Recall of Diabetes Drug Metformin for Cancer-Causing Agents

(Photo: PxHere)
A new study which the BMC Medicine journal recently published, suggests that but bacteria are partly accountable for metabolic changes that result in weight gain after chemotherapy treatment.

Symptoms Observed Led to Initiation of this Study

Commenting on their project, Dr. Shai said the symptoms she has seen as an oncologist prompted her to initiate the research.

In her clinical work with women recuperating from breast and gynecological tumors, Shai explained, she has seen "many of them gain weight" following chemotherapy and suffer difficulty going back "to their original weight."

When she reads in the medical literature about the connection between obesity and microbiome in people who do not have cancer, the doctor added, she thought "it would be interesting to see if the patients' microbiome" is one of the reasons for the occurrence of obesity, as well as other metabolic changes.

This research Shai and Koren conducted engaged 33 women who were about to start undergoing chemotherapy for their breast cancer and gynecological cancer.

The female respondents were weighed once prior to the treatment and again, roughly five weeks after the treatment's onset.

In addition, before the treatment, a stool sample was used to inherently describe the microbiome of each of the participants.

DON'T MISS THIS: COVID-19 Update: Recent Developments Regarding the Infectious Disease

Weight Gain Observed

As a result of the study, nine of the women were discovered to have gained weight to the extent that was described as a substantial three percent or more.

These women's microbiome presented a smaller assortment of gut bacteria and different microbes strains compared to that of those who did not gain weight.

The study essentially presented that the intestinal bacteria's composition may forecast which women are likely to gain weight as an outcome of chemotherapy.

Additionally, as indicated in the study, when the microbiota of women who experienced weight gain was "transferred from germ-free mice, they developed glucose intolerance and signs of chronic inflammatory condition" were identified in their blood.

Such results suggest that microbes are partly responsible for metabolic changes that resulted in weight gain after chemotherapy treatment.

Intestinal Microbiome Intervening Metabolic Changes in Women

According to Prof. Koren, for the first time, they have shown that the "pre-treatment microbiome of patients" who gained weight after chemotherapy is different than the microbiome of patients who did not experience weight gain.

More so, the study specified. Fecal transplantation from patients who experienced weight gain leads to glucose intolerance, adverse changes in lipids, and inflammatory changes in germ-free mice.

Such findings propose that the intestinal microbiome is intervening in metabolic changes in women who underwent chemotherapy.

Furthermore, the intestinal microbiome's pre-chemo composition can predict which patients are likely to gain weight after a chemotherapy treatment.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Case Report at Children's National Hospital Raises Concern for Resistance to Antibiotic

Check out more news and information on Cancer on MD News Daily.