Research

Hormonal

Weight loss of 5% or more in breast cancer survivors leads to significant decreases in inflammatory and metabolic biomarkers (CRP, insulin, leptin, IL-6), whereas less than 5% weight loss does not significantly alter these biomarkers.

To see improvements in inflammation and hormone levels linked to breast cancer risk, aim for a weight loss of at least 5% of your body weight. Losing less than 5% may not significantly change these specific biomarkers, even if you lose some weight.

GoodQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
statistically significant decreases were observed for insulin, leptin, IL-6, and CRP when comparing women randomly assigned to weight loss counseling who lost >= 5% body weight compared with those who lost < 5% body weight
Maura Harrigan et al. · Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2015

Why this rating

Subgroup analysis of an RCT. The sample size for the >=5% weight loss subgroup (n=27) is smaller, reducing power for some biomarkers, but the trend is clear for CRP, insulin, leptin, and IL-6.

Source

Randomized Trial Comparing Telephone Versus In-Person Weight Loss Counseling on Body Composition and Circulating Biomarkers in Women Treated for Breast Cancer: The Lifestyle, Exercise, and Nutrition (LEAN) Study

Maura Harrigan et al. · Journal of Clinical Oncology · 2015

DOI 10.1200/jco.2015.61.6375

rct · n=100Cited 186×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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