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Obesity Linked To Cancer

By Jane Akre

LEARN MORE Injuryboard on cancer  The Lancet report Calculate your BMI

As if the obesity epidemic was not cause enough for concern, a British study finds the more overweight you are, the greater your chance of developing cancer.

Reporting in The Lancet, the study says the weight issue relates to common cancers such as colon and breast but also to lesser known cancers such as gallbladder.

The University of Manchester researchers gathered 141 articles that cover nearly 300,000 cancer cases. They then compared the BMI or body-mass index to 20 different types of malignancies.

In the study, even those who were just into the overweight category found an increase of 52 percent of esophageal adenocarcinoma in men, thyroid cancer by 33 percent and colon and kidney cancer by 24 percent each.

In women being a little overweight increased endometrial and gallbladder cancer, esophageal and kidney cancers.

In both sexes a higher BMI was linked to leukemia, multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. 

About two-thirds of Americans are considered overweight.

Being a normal weight is a goal for so many reasons, but this study might help doctors diagnose and screen for certain cancers depending on the weight and sex of the patient.

Why the link between cancer and obesity is uncertain but an increase in fat is associated with an increase in the amount of insulin-like growth factors, insulin and sex steroids which have all been linked to tumor proliferation.   #

Full post as published by InjuryBoard on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).