livingmed.com Blog

Obesity and Cancer in Women

February 4th, 2008

New evidence from the Million Women Study finds increased risk for six cancers not previously associated with high BMI.

Increased body-mass index (BMI) raises the risk for adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, endometrial cancer, kidney cancer, and postmenopausal breast cancer in women. But researchers have not conclusively associated high BMI with the risk for other cancers in women. In this large cohort study, investigators in the U.K. recruited 1.2 million women aged 50 to 64 without cancer (except for nonmelanoma skin cancer) between 1996 and 2001. The team assessed the effect of BMI (adjusted for 10 clinical factors) on the incidence of and mortality risk for 17 of the most common types of cancer.
Mean follow-up was 5.4 years. The researchers confirmed the association between increasing BMI and the cancers previously associated with obesity. They also found significant associations between increasing BMI and the risks for leukemia, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, and — in premenopausal women only — colon cancer. In the 10 cancers that were positively associated with increasing BMI, the risks for cancer mortality were similar to those for cancer incidence. Increasing BMI did not affect risks for malignant melanoma, colorectal cancer, and cancers of the stomach, cervix, bladder, or brain. Increasing BMI decreased risks for lung cancer and squamous-cell carcinoma of the esophagus.
Comment: These sound findings suggest that more cancers are linked to obesity than previously thought. Since the worldwide obesity epidemic shows no signs of abating, we need new approaches to help patients to avoid weight gain, which could prevent many cancers as well as cardiovascular events.

Published in Journal Watch Cardiology January 9, 2008

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