The Obesity-Cancer Connection: Understanding the Risks and Taking Action

Reading time: 1 min 50 sec

Being overweight or obese increases the risk of numerous health problems. When we think about these health disorders, we think about type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and heart problems. However, we forget to discuss cancer. As our weight increases, the risk of cancers increases along with it. 

A working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, reviewed over 1,000 studies that linked the risk of developing 13 different types of cancer with being overweight or obese. 

Tell me which cancers are linked to being overweight or obese.

• Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus

• Colorectal cancer

• Breast cancer in postmenopausal women

• Uterine cancer 

• Kidney cancers

• Gastric cardia, a cancer of the part of the stomach closest to the esophagus

• Liver cancer

• Gallbladder cancer

• Pancreatic cancer

• Thyroid cancer

• Ovarian cancer

• Meningioma, a benign type of brain tumor

• Multiple myeloma, a variety of blood cancer

Along with the above 13 cancer risk, it is known that people that are overweight or obese at the time of cancer diagnosis or who have survived cancer have higher chances of developing second, unrelated cancers. 

I was hoping you could explain to me in simple terms how excess weight leads to cancer. 

Too much body fat can cause levels of growth hormones to rise, which tells cells to divide more often, which raises the chance that cancer cells will develop. Also, fat cells produce estrogen in more significant amounts, which is associated with an increased risk of endometrial, breast, ovarian, and other cancers. 

Does being overweight or obese as a child increase the risk of cancer as well? 

Fortunately, there is no known link between obesity and childhood cancer so far. Yet, children need to be a healthy weight because children that are obese do have a higher likelihood of remaining obese as an adult as well. 

So if I lose weight and am in my normal body weight, will my risk decrease? 

Yes! Evidence shows that weight loss (intentional) has lowered the risk of cancers. The evidence comes from following patients that underwent bariatric surgery vs. patients that did not. Yet, it shows that deliberate weight loss with the assistance of surgery or medications did lead to a lower risk of cancers linked to obesity. So obesity and smoking are two preventable causes of cancers.

In conclusion, the two health disorders we do not want to think or talk about, weight and cancer, are linked. So let us talk about it, discuss it, and take action by first getting us up-to-date on our cancer screening tests. Next, let us continue on the journey to staying healthy by losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight to decrease our risk of cancer.