Overweight and obesity status causes nearly half a million new cancer cases each year

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer have found that nearly half a million new cases of cancer each year are a result of high body mass index (BMI).

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 2012 and found that 3.6% of all new cancer cases are associated with high BMI. In addition, they found that cancer linked with being overweight or obese is much more common in developed countries compared with less developed countries. North America had the highest rate of overweight and obesity-related cancer; of all BMI-related cancer cases across the globe, 23% occur in North America. 

Results showed that Europe too has a large BMI-related cancer burden, particularly in Eastern Europe where 6.5% of all new cancer cases in Europe occurred there. China contributes 50,000 BMI-related cancer cases each year. On the other hand, Africa only had 1.5% of BMI-related new cancer cases in 2012.

Furthermore, women were found to more likely develop BMI-related cancer than men (5.3% of BMI-linked new cancer cases versus 1.9%). The most common BMI-related cancers in women were endometrium, colon, and breast, while kidney and colon were the most common BMI-linked cancer in men.