A study carried out by an international research team found that overweight- and obesity-related cancer risk is much higher than previously thought, according to Medical Xpress.
Researchers at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and Bristol Medical School found that the effect of being overweight and obese on the risk of cancer is at least twice as large as previously expected.
The study was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in 2019.
The authors conducted genetic analyses on eight common types of cancer associated with obesity.
They compared the genetic Mendelian randomization estimates of the link between body mass index (BMI) and cancer risk.
Previous research has already shown that obesity is one of the important causes and risk factors of cancer.
It has been estimated that obesity accounts for 6% of all cancers in high-income nations. However, the 2019 study analysis suggested that the proportion of cancers related to overweight and obesity is substantially higher.
Prof. Richard Martin of the University of Bristol Medical School said, “The importance of these analyses is that they suggest that the effect of being overweight on cancer risk has been underestimated in the past and that obesity plays an even more important role in cancer than previously suggested.” The article was published in Medical Xpress.
