As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers have identified eight additional types of cancer linked to excess weight and obesity: stomach, liver, gall bladder, pancreas, ovary, meningioma , thyroid cancer and the blood cancer multiple myeloma. And the data suggests that avoiding obesity could help to reduce the risk of these cancers.
This study utilizing researchers around the world, reviewed more than 1,000 studies of excess weight and cancer risk analyzed by the WHO’s International Agency for Cancer on Research. In 2002, this same group of cancer researchers found evidence linking excess weight to higher risks of cancers of the colon, esophagus, kidney, breast and uterus.
Graham Colditz, MD, DrPH, a cancer prevention expert at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis says,”The burden of cancer due to being overweight or obese is more extensive than what has been assumed. Many of the newly identified cancers linked to excess weight haven’t been on people’s radar screens as having a weight component.”
“Lifestyle factors such as eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising, in addition to not smoking, can have a significant impact on reducing cancer risk” he said. “Public health efforts to combat cancer should focus on these things that people have some control over.”
For most of the cancers on the newly expanded list, the researchers also see that greater the degree of being overweight, the greater the cancer risk. And the cancer risk that the study found, the same for both men and women.
“Significant numbers of the U.S. and the world’s population are overweight,” Dr. Colditz says. “This is another wake-up call. It’s time to take our health and our diets seriously.”
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