Researchers say excess weight can cause cancer

Researchers say excess body weight causes around 481,000 new cancer cases a year in adults worldwide, Xinhua news agency reported.

Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) used data from a number of sources including the Globocan database of cancer for 184 countries in their study.

They created a model to estimate the fraction of cancers associated with excess body weight in 2012, and the proportion that could be attributed to increasing body mass index (BMI) since 1982.

Based on the results, the researchers estimate that a quarter of all obesity-related cancers in 2012 (118,000 cases) were attributable to rising BMI in the population since 1982 and were therefore "realistically avoidable."

The findings reveal obesity-related cancer is a greater problem for women than men largely due to endometrial and post-menopausal breast cancers.

In men, excess weight was responsible for 1.9 percent or 136,000 new cancers in 2012 while in women it was 5.4 percent or 345,000 new cases.

The burden is far higher in more developed countries with almost two-thirds (64 percent) of obesity-related cancers occurring in North America and Europe.

"Our findings add support for a global effort to address rising trends in obesity," said lead researcher Dr. Melina Arnold from IARC.

"The global prevalence of obesity in adults has doubled since 1980. If this trend continues, it will certainly boost the future burden of cancer," she said.

The study was published in British medical journal The Lancet Oncology on Friday.