Lean muscle-mass may even help obese patients fight cancer

London, Dec 18 (ANI): A new study from University of Alberta suggests that lean muscle-mass may aid obese people fight against cancer.

While analysing the computed tomography scans of 250 obese cancer patients, the researchers found that that people with a condition called sarcopenic obesity, a depletion of lean muscle mass, survived months less than their obese counterparts who had more muscle mass.

The researchers suggest that body compositions of cancer patients potentially play a vital role in their survival, activity levels during the illness and even their response to chemotherapy treatment.

"In many cases, people with sarcopenic obesity have as little or sometimes less muscle mass than thin people who look as of they were made of skin and bones," The Lancet quoted Vickie Baracos, a professor of oncology and adjunct professor of human nutrition at the University of Alberta, and lead author on the study as saying.

According to Baracos as body composition plays a vital role in determining the obese cancer patients' response to chemotherapy; the relative drug dosing could potentially improve treatment.

"It remains to be proven whether tailored doses of chemotherapy would improve treatment, but that's possible based on what we've seen in this study," she added. (ANI)