Obesity affects expression of progesterone receptors and node metastasis of mammary carcinomas in postmenopausal women without a family history

Possible relationships between risk factors, such as obesity and a family h istory of breast cancer, and prognostic factors of mammary carcinomas were investigated by examining the body mass index of patients and the expressio n of estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptors (PgR), c-erbB-2 and p53, grad e of histology, size of tumors and nodal status of mammary carcinomas, Ther e was no significant difference in the body mass index of premenopausal pat ients either with or without a family history, For postmenopausal patients, the body mass index was significantly low in patients with a family histor y compared with patients without a family history, In premenopausal patient s with or without a family history and in postmenopausal patients with a fa mily history, there was no significant difference in the body mass index re gardless of the mammary carcinoma prognostic factor, such as expression of ER, PgR, c-erb8-a and p53, grade of histology, size of tumors and nodal sta tus. However, in postmenopausal patients without a family history, body mas s index was significantly high for patients with mammary carcinomas that ha d PgR expression and node metastasis. These results suggest that obesity ma y affect the PgR status and nodal status of mammary carcinomas in postmenop ausal patients without a family history.