Cancer News and Updates 2016: Types Link to Obesity Increase to Thirteen; Lifestyle Choices Could Be Cancer Factors

Obesity is Now Linked to Eight More Cancer Types, Find Out How You Can Prevent It

By Christian Ver Marcelo, CP Contributor Friday, August 26, 2016

Experts have recently linked obesity and overweight hurdles to eight more types of cancer on top of the five types previously released, increasing related diseases to thirteen.

From Five to Thirteen

From a list of five, World Health Organization (WHO) experts have increased the types of cancer connected to carrying extra body weight to thirteen. The original five types were breast, bowel, womb, esophageal, and kidney.

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Added to the list by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) are stomach, pancreatic, ovarian, gall bladder, liver, thyroid, myeloma, and meningioma. Myeloma is a type of cancer that infects the bone marrow, while meningioma is a type of brain tumor.

Weight-Cancer Relation Study

The WHO IARC experts published their study "Body Fatness and Cancer – Viewpoint of the IARC Working Group" on The New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers have analyzed over one thousand studies on the link between the risk of getting cancer and having excess weight.

It was also the same IARC researchers that have linked the original five types of cancer to obesity back in 2002. It was stated that the higher the body-mass index of an individual is, the higher their probability of acquiring the newly-connected types of cancer.

The head of research, Dr. Graham Colditz of Washington University said that the burden of cancer as a result of obesity or overweightness is far more extensive than what was previously assumed. Most of the newly identified types associated with extra weight were not previously being monitored in radar screens for having the weight component.

Lifestyle Choices

Opposing the previous views of doctors that cancer was mainly caused by genetics and a stroke of bad luck, certain experts now emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle. Risk reduction for cancer is mainly down to an individual's lifestyle choices, as the different organs respond to the various stimuli and chemicals done by a person.

The same experts said that about 40 percent of cancer cases could have actually been avoided. This is a far cry from the similarly situated 85 to 90 percent statistic of heart disease cases. In the US, the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention puts the obesity statistics to more than 40 percent for women and around 35 percent of men.

Colditz added that as weight is now somewhat of a key factor in developing cancer, people must develop a healthier lifestyle. As pancreatic cancer has an already established cause and that is smoking. A for liver cancer, it is affirmed to be caused both by smoking and alcohol drinking. Moreover, the weight component now factors in to increase the risk factors of cancer.