Some Cancer Medications Increase The Risk Of Obesity

Anti-cancer treatments can be detrimental to the body in other ways many are not aware of. As health officials work to decrease the risk of tumor progression or mutating cells, certain medications can increase the risk of obesity--thus, triggering dangerous inflammation in response to immunotherapy.

Recent findings published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine examine how some of these treatments can be a liability --leading to extensive weight gain and other health issues along the way.

For the study, researchers examined the relationship between weight and response to drugs in rat models. Researchers found that immunotherapy was effective in fighting tumor cells in younger mice. However, in older ones, it often led to inflammation. Furthermore, they noted that as the rats aged, they tended to gain weight, which also led the researchers to question if weight or old age triggered inflammation.

The team then treated a group of young, obese rats with immunotherapy with a mixture of immune-activating stimuli that incorporated anti-CD40 antibodies and interleukin (IL)-2. Furthermore, they found that this group of mice also developed lethal inflammation.

As the past few years have shown that immunotherapy can revolutionize cancer treatments, researchers have found that certain treatments work by triggering the patient's own immune system to work better by killing more cancer cells. For older individuals, this can be more difficult to deal with due to the body's weight-gaining response. Yet the team believes that losing weight can also improve survival chances, as well, in the case that cancer treatments are particularly difficult on the body.