Purpose statement
1. There is a relationship between obesity and breast cancer. However, the nature of relationship is quite complicated because research has not exhausted it.
2. The purpose of this paper is to study the impacts of obesity on breast cancer. Obesity is also called overweight. Meaning, it occurs in a person who has excess body fats. The fats stored in the body of females might be dangerous because it may increase the chances of contracting breast cancer (Matthews & Thompson, 2016). This is what the research is seeking to address so as to provide an adequate understanding on how excess body fat can make people to be vulnerable to attack by breast cancer.
3. The research is significant because it seeks to study the relationship that exists between obesity and breast cancer. The findings from the study will be of great significance since they will be relied upon to answer all the questions pertaining to the complexities in the relationship between obesity and breast cancer. By providing an adequate to this problem, the research will become quite significant in providing scientific information that can be relied upon as evidence for understanding how to address obesity as a means of providing long-term solution to breast cancer (Reeves, Winkler, Mccarthy, Lawler, Terranova, Hayes & Eakin, 2017). This implies that the overall significance of the research will be to contribute towards the eradication of obesity as well as breast cancer.
4. Obesity is a lifestyle disease that affects many people. An individual can be declared to be obese if he or she has a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 and above. This BMI can be disastrous because it leads to the accumulation of excess fats into the body. Such fats are the ones responsible for obesity. Research has found out that excess fats in the body is unhealthy for human beings because it exposes them to a number of lifestyle-related diseases like diabetes, heart attack, and even cancer (Gauger, Bassa, Henchey, Wyman, Ser-Dolansky, Shimono & Schneider, 2014). That is why it is widely-known today that obesity is one of the leading precursors for breast cancer.
There is, therefore, a connection between obesity and breast cancer. When a woman has excess fats in the body, it is most likely that such fats might not be used to benefit it. Instead, they contribute to the occurrence of certain metabolic reactions in the body. For example, if stored in excess, fats can result into the secretion of hormones like estrogen whose excessive production leads to the outbreak of breast cancer (Pierobon & Frankenfeld, 2013). Despite playing a significant role in enhancing the reproductive and sexual life of women, estrogen can be harmful because it can be responsible for the causing of breast cancer. The other way through which obesity contributes to breast cancer is that having excess fats and calories might be linked to a rise in the levels of insulin in the blood. Once this happens, there are high chances of a person contracting breast cancer (Matthews & Thompson, 2016).
Significance of the study
However, despite explaining all these, there still exists a missing gap because the existing studies have not comprehensively-explored the relationship between breast cancer and obesity. So far, attempts have been made to explain the link between overweight, excess body fat, insulin, and estrogen. This implies that no adequate information has been availed to justify what mechanisms cause the rise in the levels of insulin and estrogen and how exactly they contribute to bre4ast, but not any other cancer (Amadou, Ferrari, Muwonge, Moskal, Biessy, Romieu & Hainaut, 2013). Also, no adequate research has been done to determine if the estrogen influence is only experienced by the females or the males as well. These are the missing information that this research will strive to fill because it is essential in understanding the complexities in the relationship between obesity and breast cancer.
5. The research will be a systematic review. Meaning, it will focus on the review of secondary data that had been written and published by other scholars. Meaning, the research design will neither assume the qualitative or quantitative methods. The strict criteria that will be adopted will help in guaranteeing the inclusion of the best sources that can be relied upon to provide the required information on that will adequately respond to the research questions and help in the realization of the research objectives. When it comes to the analysis of data, meta-analysis will be preferred because it is more comprehensive and thorough for usage in generating the best data for the study.
6. The main research questions for the study are:
– What are the effects of obesity on breast cancer?
– How does obesity impact on the levels of estrogen in the body?
– What are the influences of overweight on the levels of insulin in the body and how does it impact on breast cancer?
Each of these questions is relevant for the study because they seek to capture each of the issues that will be addressed in the study. They will provide the right guideline that is needed for the study. Hence, if adequately responded to, the researchers will manage to generate findings and data that can be relied upon to provide the required knowledge to the readers and any other professionals who will need to use the research as an authoritative source of scientific knowledge.
7. The study will be mainly a systematic review and meta-analysis of data. Meaning, its data-collection and analysis will mainly involve two series of activities-systematic review of published literature, and the statistical analysis of the findings. The systematic review will be done by searching for the most suitable publications that contain the required information on the impacts of obesity on breast cancer. During the review, a well-outlined procedure will have to be followed (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2017). After identifying the topic, the next thing will be to identify the databases from which the search will be conducted. Here, only PubMed and GoogleSchlar will have to be chosen because they contain the required data.
Background of the study
From these data bases, key words like obesity, breast cancer, estrogen, and insulin will be used. However, not all the reference materials will be used because only a few of them that pass the inclusion criteria will be used. Once data collection is completed, the findings will be analyzed using meta-analysis (Protani, Coory & Martin, 2010). Here, all the findings will be pooled together to ensure that only the best information is used for the study. Meta-analysis is the best instrument to use when analyzing the data because it guarantees the generation of valid and reliable data that can be generalized in other contexts.
8. During the study, only a few and the best sources of data will be used. The sources will comprise of peer-reviewed journals and books that were published by credible scholars who have had a reputable name in the field of healthcare. All the sources must meet the inclusion criteria which will encompass the credibility of the authors, date of publication, and relevance to the research topic. Any reference material that does not meet these conditions will not be selected, but will have to be excluded from the study.
References
Amadou, A., Ferrari, P., Muwonge, R., Moskal, A., Biessy, C., Romieu, I., & Hainaut, P.
(2013). Overweight, obesity and risk of premenopausal breast cancer according to ethnicity: A systematic review and dose?response meta?analysis. Obesity Reviews, 14(8), 665-678.
Gauger, K. J., Bassa, L. M., Henchey, E. M., Wyman, J., Ser-Dolansky, J., Shimono, A., &
Schneider, S. S. (2014). The effects of diet induced obesity on breast cancer associated pathways in mice deficient in SFRP1. Molecular cancer, 13(1), 117.
Matthews, S. B., & Thompson, H. J. (2016). The obesity-breast cancer conundrum: An analysis
of the issues. International journal of molecular sciences, 17(6), 989.
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2017). Nursing Research-E-Book: Methods and Critical
Appraisal for Evidence-Based Practice. New York: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Pierobon, M., & Frankenfeld, C. L. (2013). Obesity as a risk factor for triple-negative breast
cancers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Breast cancer research and treatment, 137(1), 307-314.
Protani, M., Coory, M., & Martin, J. H. (2010). Effect of obesity on survival of women with
breast cancer: systematic review and meta-analysis. Breast cancer research and treatment, 123(3), 627-635.
Reeves, M., Winkler, E., Mccarthy, N., Lawler, S., Terranova, C., Hayes, S., … & Eakin, E.
(2017). The Living Well after Breast Cancer™ Pilot Trial: A weight loss intervention for women following treatment for breast cancer. Asia?pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, 13(3), 125-136.
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