Patients with breast cancer who enrolled in a telephone-based weight-loss intervention program reported improvements to physical function, symptom management, and quality of life (QOL) compared with those who did not, according to study data presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting.

In the phase 3 BWEL study, Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, senior physician in the Breast Oncology Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and colleagues enrolled women with newly diagnosed stage II/III breast cancer and a BMI of ≥ 27. A total of 542 patients were randomly assigned to health education alone or in combination with a 24-month lifestyle-based weight-loss intervention, administered via telephone by lifestyle coaches at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. At baseline, patients had a median BMI of 32.9.

Patients assigned to the weight-loss intervention arm received up to 42 telephone calls during the intervention period, which focused on caloric restriction, daily calorie goals, and caloric deficits based on their baseline body weight and a 10% weight-loss goal.

The lifestyle coaches further counseled patients to increase their physical activity. In the first 6 months of the intervention, patients were encouraged to pursue 150 minutes of physical activity per week. After 6 months, they were encouraged to increase their physical activity to 220 minutes per week.

Invasive disease-free survival served as the primary endpoint of the BWEL study. The substudy presented at ASCO focused on the effects of weight-loss intervention with regard to patient-reported physical, mental, and social health.

Most women enrolled in the study were non-Hispanic White. Black women comprised 10.7% of the study population, with Hispanic women making up 5.9% of the cohort.

Ligibel and colleagues found that at 6 months, women assigned to the weight-loss intervention demonstrated significantly higher physical functioning than those assigned to health education alone.

In addition, assignment to the weight-loss intervention correlated with significant improvements in global physical health, global mental health, social roles and activities, and fatigue.

The researchers did not observe significant differences between the two arms regarding anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, or pain interference.

According to Ligibel, the improvements made by patients assigned to the weight-loss intervention at 6 months were generally maintained at the 24-month period. She noted, however, that the improvements to fatigue at 6 months were no longer statistically significant at 24 months.

“BWEL will continue to follow patients over time to assess the impact of the weight loss intervention on invasive disease-free survival and other outcomes, and to evaluate whether these improvements in quality of life translate to better breast cancer outcomes.”

- Jennifer A. Ligibel, MD, senior physician in the Breast Oncology Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston

“The BWEL study has demonstrated that a remote, telephone-based intervention can be highly effective in inducing clinically meaningful weight loss across a very diverse demographic and diverse tumor factors. By delivering coaching over the phone, the intervention removed geographic and logistical barriers that can often prevent patients from participating in these types of lifestyle programs.”

- Julie R. Gralow, MD, chief medical officer of ASCO

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References:

https://ac.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/261419

https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02750826

Disclosures: Ligibel declared financial ties to drugmakers. See abstract for details. The Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology sponsored the BWEL study.

By Cameron Kelsall

Photo Credit: Getty Images