- Obesity is a risk factor for many cancers, and the number of cancers that were previously only typically seen in people over 50 have an increasing prevalence in younger people with obesity.
- Diet and lifestyle interventions are not always successful in treating obesity and reducing cancer risk in the long term, and bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce cancer rates in people with obesity.
- Now, a team of researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has shown that bariatric surgery could reduce the risk of blood cancer in women, in a cohort of Swedish people.
There are 13 cancers that are linked to obesity according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and now research suggests that blood cancers could be added to that list.
Cancers linked to obesity make up 40% of cancers diagnosed in the United States, and women are disproportionately affected.
Of the 13 cancers linked to obesity, the most common is breast cancer in women at post-menopausal stage. Others include uterine and ovarian cancer, and there is some evidence suggesting that women with obesity are at higher risk of cervical cancer too.
The reasons underpinning the difference seen between men and women are not entirely understood, though some researchers think that the relationship between insulin, sex hormones, and molecules that play a role in inflammation called cytokines could play a role.
Excess adiposity increases the risk of insulin insensitivity, where the cells are less receptive to the hormone’s presence.
This makes the body produce more insulin, and eventually the insulin producing cells in the pancreas become unable to keep up with the amount of insulin needed by the body, causing blood sugars to rise.
This leads to type 2 diabetes, which is associated with an
Dr. Magdalena Taube recently led a team of researchers from…
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