Inclusion criteria, exclusion criteria and study summary
Some patients with early breast cancer are treated with chemotherapy before or after surgery. Chemotherapy is given with the aim of eradicating any cancer cells that may have escaped into the general circulation and reduce the risk of the cancer returning. Chemotherapy treatment in this setting is most effective if patients receive the optimum dose, on time and without delays or reductions in their treatment doses. Chemotherapy doses are calculated from a patient’s height and weight. However, these calculations were designed for normal weight patients which has resulted in uncertainty as to whether patients with different amounts of blood, muscle and fatty tissue (body composition) are being dosed with chemotherapy correctly. For example, obesity is defined by body mass index calculated from height and weight but this does not take into account that people of the same size can have differing body compositions which can affect the behaviour of drugs. Approximately 26% of British women are considered to be obese and obese breast cancer patients have a higher risk of disease recurrence than healthy-weight patients. Our pilot study, CANDO-2, has confirmed that body composition data from early breast cancer patients attending routine chemotherapy out-patients can be collected quickly and easily by asking patients to stand on a sBIA analyser for a few minutes and that these measurements may help predict when patients might need to unexpectedly return to hospital during chemotherapy for side effects or problems. In the Cando-3 study we will be collecting body composition data from over 300 women receiving routine chemotherapy before or after breast surgery across seven UK hospital sites. We will collect information on the chemotherapy drugs and doses each patient receives and the side effects they experience to investigate how different patterns of body composition are associated with intolerance and side effects from chemotherapy.
