Weight gain in patients with breast cancer receiving adjuvant treatment as a function of restraint, disinhibition, and hunger.

Little is known about how/why women who receive adjuvant chemotherapy treatment, hormone therapy, or radiation for nonmetastatic breast cancer gain weight. This study's purpose was to use the restraint-disinhibition model to understand susceptibility to weight gain, and the potential impact of exercise and dysphoria. Data were collected using interviews, medical records, and standardized instruments (e.g., PAIS, BSI, EDI) at a mean of 19 months post-treatment onset for 73 subjects who received either chemotherapy, tamoxifen, or radiation after definitive surgery. The data were analyzed using MANCOVAs, stepwise logistic regression, correlation matrices, chi-squares, and descriptive statistics. Findings indicated that subjects who scored high on a measure of perceived hunger and who responded to external eating cues (disinhibited) tended to weigh more at baseline and be more likely to gain weight after therapy ended (p less than 0.05). Subjects who tended to control their weight (restrained) tended to gain weight during treatment and to stabilize once treatment ended (p less than 0.01). This study suggests that weight gain can be controlled by diet and exercise based on measurable dietary patterns.