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Obesity Increases Risk of Several Cancers in Men and Women

Date: Friday, November 04, 2005

Source: British Medical Journal

Being overweight or obese increases the risk of several cancers in men and women, a new study has found.

The research, which followed more than 145 000 people in Austria for 10 years, shows that high body weight was associated with a greater risk of colon, rectal, and pancreatic cancer in men and of endometrial and non-Hodgkins lymphomas in women (British Journal of Cancer 2005;93:1062-7).

A high body mass index (BMI) also seemed to increase the risk of breast cancer among women aged 65 or more.

"Our study provides additional support . . . for associations between BMI and the incidence of colon, rectal and pancreatic cancer, and to a lesser extent of kidney and liver cancer in men, and with endometrial cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer and non-Hodgkins lymphomas in women," write the authors, who come from five institutions: the University of Ulm, Germany, the University of North Carolina, the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria's Agency for Preventive and Social Medicine, and the Cancer Registry of Tyrol.

The study followed 67 447 men and 78 484 women. Their mean age at the start of the study was around 42, and the average time of follow up was nearly 10 years. By the end of the observation period 6241 cancers, other than non-melanoma skin cancers, had been diagnosed.

Other data available from the cohort included smoking status, occupation, and BMI, which was classed as normal (18.5 to 24.99), overweight (25 to 29.99), obese class I (30 to 34.99), or obese class II and III (³35).

Abergavenny
Roger Dobson