Link Between BMI and Cancer

Almost 500, 000 new cancer cases annually can be linked to high body mass index, with respect to a new study performed by investigators from the International Agency for Research on Cancer and presented in The Lancet Oncology.

High body mass index (BMI) is recognized to be a threat factor for cancers impacting the kidneys, pancreas, breasts, esophagus, gallbladder, endometrium, rectum, ovaries and colon.

The new research – which viewed at data from 2012 – finds that 3.6% of the overall worldwide cancer problem is connected with high BMI, and that cancer because of overweight and obesity is far very frequent in developed nations than in less developed nations.

“Over-all, we see that while the amount of cancer cases connected with overweight and obesity continues to be highest in richer nations, similar results are currently visible in areas of the developing community,” explains co-led author Dr. Isabelle Soerjomataram.

The most impacted area continues to be North America, where an approximated 111,000 new obesity-related cancer conditions appeared in 2012 – about 23% of the total worldwide BMI-related cancer burden.

Europe also has a huge cancer burden connected with obesity and over weight, with Eastern Europe comprising 6.4% (64,000 cases) of all new European cancer conditions.

The percentage of cancers connected with overweight and obesity in Asian nations is not as big, but because of population size, the authors note that “it still means into a significant absolute number of cases.”

For example, even though only 1.6% of China’s new cancer cases were identified to be attributable to overweight and obesity, this even now comprised 50,000 cancer cases in overall.

The investigators compare this occurrence to the rates in Africa, where 1.5% of all new cancer conditions were relevant to overweight and obesity, but the overall number of cases in the whole region was just 7,300 during 2012.

Research finds out significant gender variations of BMI-related cancer cases

In the research, occurrence of BMI-relevant cancer different across nations in accordance to gender. The nations with maximum cancer burden attributable to overweight and obesity in males were:

Czech Republic (5.5% of the nation’s new cancer cases)

Jordan (4.5%)

UK (4.4%)

Malta (4.4%).

For females, the nations with the greatest cancer burden attributable to overweight and obesity were:

Barbados (12.7% of the nation’s new cancer cases)

Czech Republic (12.0%)

Puerto Rico (11.6%).

The percentage of cancers appropriate to being overweight was identified to be considerably higher in females than in males.

The population-attributable percentage of BMI-connected cancers in new cancer cases between women was 5.2%, in comparison with just 1.8% among men.

“Women are disproportionately impacted by obesity-associated cancers,” says Dr. Melina Arnold, one of the lead authors of the current research. “For instance, for postmenopausal breast cancer, the very frequent cancer in females worldwide, the research suggests that 10% of these cancers could have been prevented by having a healthy and balanced body weight.”

Endometrium, colon and breast cancers accounted for 71% of the cancers connected to high BMI in women. Renal and colon cancers accounted for 65% of all cancers connected with high BMI in men.

Dr. Christopher Wild, comments on the research’s results:

“The number of cancers linked to overweight and obesity is predicted to rise worldwide along with economic development.

This research pressures the significance of putting in place effective weight control actions, to control the high number of cancers linked with extra body weight and to prevent the issues experienced by rich nations being repeated in those now going through rapid development.”