Body Mass Index and patient-reported measures of function, quality of life and treatment toxicity in women receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer

Background: This study investigates whether high body mass index (BMI) in women diagnosed with early breast cancer (BC) is associated with patient-reported symptom severity during chemotherapy.Methods: Women with Stage I-III BC completed toxicity reports for 17 side effects during regularly scheduled chemotherapy infusions. Toxicity reports were compared in women with obesity (BMI >=30) versus no obesity (BMI Results: In a sample of 286 patients, Black women comprised 23% of the sample. The obesity rate was 76% among Black patients and 31% among White patients (pConclusions: Among women with early BC, patients with obesity reported higher chemotherapy toxicity as compared to patients without obesity; however, this did not result in differences in treatment completion.