A recent epidemiological survey published in the medical journal The Lancet showed that higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increased risk of developing 10 common types of cancer. This is the largest study of its kind, with data from more than 5 million British adults included. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Farr Institute of Health Informatics estimate that more than 12,000 cases of these 10 cancers are associated with being overweight or obese in the UK each year, and that if the average BMI of the population continues to increase, there will be an additional 3,000 or so cancer cases each year. “The number of people who are overweight and obese is growing rapidly in the UK and around the world. It is now well known that obesity induces more diabetes and cardiovascular disease. And our findings suggest that if this trend continues, we will also see more cases of cancer emerge.” Study leader Krishnan, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine? Dr. Bhaskaran said. Using data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), the researchers included 5.24 million subjects aged 16 years and older and followed them for an average of 7.5 years. The researchers recorded the subjects’ body mass index, corrected for age, sex, smoking status and other factors, and compared the differences in cancer risk among individuals with different body mass indexes. At the end of the study, a total of 166,955 subjects were detected with one of the 22 most common types of cancer. The results showed that for every 5 (in kg/m2) increase in body mass index from normal, there was a significant increase in the risk of cancer at each of the following sites: a 62% increase in the risk of uterine tumors, a 31% increase in gallbladder cancer, a 25% increase in kidney cancer, a 10% increase in cervical cancer, and an approximately 9% increase in the risk of thyroid cancer and leukemia. Higher body mass index also increased the overall risk of liver, colon, ovarian and breast tumors, but there was variation in the effects. In some cancer types, higher body mass index within the normal range also appears to be associated with increased risk. In addition, there are data suggesting that the risk of prostate and premenopausal breast cancers may be slightly reduced in people with higher body mass index. There is a lot of variation in the effect of body mass index on different cancers,” Baskaran explained. For example, at higher BMI, the risk of uterine tumors increased substantially; for other cancers, we observed a more modest increase in risk or no change in risk. For some cancers, such as breast cancer that appears before menopause, those with higher BMI appear to have an even lower risk. These differences tell us that weight affects cancer risk in several different ways, depending on the specific type of cancer.” Based on the results, the researchers estimate that excess weight in the UK may be responsible for 41 percent of uterine tumors, and 10 percent or more of gallbladder, kidney, liver and colon cancers. They also believe that when the average BMI in the population as a whole rises by 1 kg/m2 (roughly equivalent to an extra 3 to 4 kg of weight gain per person), it leads to an increase of about 3,790 cancer cases per year in the UK. Peter from the American Cancer Society? Dr. Campbell said: “We have ample evidence that obesity is a major cause of much unnecessary cancer disease and death. Adjusting health policies to curb obesity is necessary and no more research is needed to prove this.” Although, more and more people are now aware of the dangers of obesity, health insurance is not yet very supportive of diabetes surgery. A person’s life is long, and surgery can allow patients to maintain a healthy weight for several years. What’s more important is to develop good habits to stay in shape.