「肥満はがん治療ではポジティブファクターになる！？」”Obesity as a positive factor for cancer treatment”
Share for Smileの楓子です。
肥満はがんを誘発し、がんを発症したあとは肥満はがんの進行を促し、薬がターゲット意外にも効いてしまうオフターゲット作用の働きを促すなどと考えられてきました。その為、肥満はがん治療に置いて「ネガティブファクター」になるということです。
肥満は「絶対に悪いもの」と思われがちですが、このような常識に囚われず、肥満がどのように健康と病気、また治療法に影響してくるのか動的状態の再評価が必要ですね。
It is thought that obesity is a risk factor for cancer, and it can worsen the cancer condition, as well as increase the severity of off target activity of the cancer treatment. Therefore, obesity was thought to be a negative factor in this case.
However, in the report that was published in 2018 suggested that people with BMI over 30 (considered as obese) had an advantage when using immune checkpoint inhibitor. Immune check point inhibitor is used as immunotherapy and targets immune cells. Another research paper suggested that when obese patients get immune checkpoint inhibitor, the risk of death decreased by 36% compared to low BMI patients.
It is commonly thought that obesity is bad and unhealthy, but we may need to look and re-assess how obesity can affect the treatment.
