Obesity and Cancer
November 1, 2014 less than 1 minute read
The link between obesity and adverse cardiovascular outcomes can be fairly directly attributed to readily visible obesity comorbidities such as increases in blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and sedentary lifestyle. But what about cancer?
According to a recent analysis in Lancet based on records from primary care records in the United Kingdom (n = 5.24 million), there is a meaningful relationship between increasing body mass index (BMI) and cancer.
For instance, for every 5 kg/m2 increase in BMI, statistically significant hazard ratios increased for cancers of the uterus (HR = 1.62), gallbladder (HR = 1.31), kidney (HR = 1.25), cervix (HR = 1.10), and thyroid (HR = 1.09). Not all cancer risks were magnified by increasing BMI. For instance, prostate cancer and pre-menopausal breast cancer were inversely associated with BMI.
According to this analysis, as many as 41% of uterine cancers and 10% gallbladder, kidney, liver, and colon cancers are related to being overweight in the United Kingdom. The mechanism(s) by which increasing weight is associated with cancer in general is by no means clear. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated that overweight women more often feel like they get a negative reception from their health care provider and hence do not attend cervical cancer screening opportunities as assiduously as age-matched, more slender women.
In addition to well-recognized cardiovascular consequences of obesity, risk for some cancers is also meaningfully increased.
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