Obesity and Cancer

Posted on September 15, 2008
Filed Under Cancer, People |

It is known that excess weight is detrimental to overall health and especially cardiovascular. Now we also know that it can also be an important risk factor for developing different types of cancer.

Overweight and obesity…

Excess body weight or in people with overweight, defined it as a body mass index (BMI = weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) of 25 to 29 or in obese individuals (BMI greater than or equal to 30), is a well-known risk factor for developing certain cancers.

Increased risk of cancer…

A report by the World Foundation for Cancer Research published in 2007 concluded that convincing evidence that body fat is associated with an increased risk of cancer of the esophagus, pancreas, rectum and colon, postmenopausal breast during, endometrium and kidney and probably there is an association between body fat and risk of gallbladder cancer.

The study

The authors of this study sought to compare the associations between different cancer sites and between sexes and populations to quantify the risk of various cancers associated with increased BMI.

This made for a systematic review and meta-analysis (a review of published studies on the subject) in order to evaluate the strength of associations between BMI and different sites of cancer and to investigate the differences in these associations between sex and ethnic groups.

Did a literature search of studies published in the last 40 years in the major databases and investigated the reports to identify prospective studies of incident cases of 20 types of cancer. Analyzed over 140 articles that met the inclusion criteria and included about 300,000 cases incidents.

Men: esophagus, thyroid, colon and kidney

Their results showed that in men, a 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI was associated with a potent form of cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, colon and kidney.

Women: endometrial, gallbladder, kidney and esophagus

Powerful women in registered partnerships between a 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI and endometrial cancer, gall bladder, esophagus and kidney. It also saw weaker positive associations between increasing the rate and rectal cancer and malignant melanoma in men, postmenopausal breast, pancreas, thyroid and colon in women and leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma in both sexes.

The associations were greater in men than in women for colon cancer. Interestingly, an increased body mass index was negatively associated (protective effect) to the risk of lung cancer.

The authors conclude that their study shows that an increased body mass index is associated with an increased risk of various cancers in adults (some of them very rare and more common). For some cancers, associations differ between sexes and populations of different ethnic backgrounds. Epidemiological observations indicate that these should be followed by research on the biological mechanisms that link obesity and cancer to clarify whether effective interventions that reduce body mass index in adult populations will reduce the risk of developing cancer.

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