Women who were obese or overweight before and after being diagnosed with breast cancer have lower odds of surviving the disease, a recent study suggests.

Researcher of the study found that the relationship between deaths from breast cancer and excessive weight only occur in estrogen receptor-positive forms of the illnesses. An estrogen receptor-positive form of cancer means the hormone ‘estrogen’ stimulates the progression of the disease.

Christina Dieli-Conwright, lead author of the study and assistant research professor at Duarte, California said in a press release that the relationship may depend on whether the breast cancer is dependent on the hormone.

The research showed that breast cancer patients who are overweight or obese tend to have increased estrogen levels in their blood, which could make out the reason why there is an increased risk of mortality.

The study is composed of 3,995 women who had an invasive form of breast cancer from the year of 1995 to 2006. Of those women, 262 had died from the disease.

Researchers examined their BMI or body mass index, which is a measure of an individual’s height and weight, when the patients were 18-years-old and at the time the patients were diagnosed. In this case, a BMI of 30 and more is classified as obesity while a BMI of 25 to 29 is classified as overweight.

Patients who were obese at the time they were diagnosed had an increased risk of dying up to 69 percent than those who were diagnosed at a healthy weight. An equal risk is given to those patients who were overweight at the time they were 18 years-old.

However, since the study was introduced at a medical meeting, the findings are still viewed as initial up to the time the study is published in a journal.

Overweight individuals who are not considered obese according to previous Food and Drug Administration standards now qualify to be candidates for Lap Band Surgery as an effective weight loss technique thanks to the FDA’s recent lowering of weight requirements for Lap Band patients. In mid-February, the FDA relaxed its weight requirements for using Allergan’s Lap-Band stomach restriction device used in the popular weight loss surgery. The new ruling lowers the required body mass index, or BMI of the patient from 40 with no obesity-related health problems to 35, and to a BMI of 30 for those individuals with current health complications.

The FDA’s new ruling enables more than 26 million people struggling with weight issues in America to be able to consider having Lap Band Surgery, almost double the number of individuals that were previously eligible for this type of weight loss surgery. The advisory committee to the FDA in making its endorsement to widen the availability of the Lap-Band noted that the many benefits of the device were greater than the risks for patients who are on the fringe of obesity levels.

Under the old regulations, an obese man with a health condition such as diabetes, standing 5 feet 6 inches tall would have had to weigh at least 216 pounds in order to qualify for Lap-Band Surgery. Under the new FDA regulations, that same surgical candidate with the same medical condition could weigh as much as 30 pounds less, or 186 pounds, and still qualify to use Lap Band Surgery as his chosen weight loss method.

Allergan helped to win the new regulations by submitting a study which showed that Lap-Band Surgery patients lost an average of 18% of their body weight within a year of the surgery. Allergan has agreed to continue to follow these same patients in clinical studies for the next 5 years.

In recent years as diet drugs have gone out of favor and some have been pulled off the market for being dangerous, the Lap-Band, an inflatable silicone ring positioned on the stomach to help reduce food intake and make the patient feel fuller after consuming less calories, has increased in popularity for both its safety and effectiveness.