Weight Loss Shown to Reduce Cancer Risk, Study

Two recently published studies emphasize the relationship between excess weight and cancer. The first was recently published in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR) and determined that in 2014, 40% of all cancers in the U.S. are obesity- or overweight-related cancers. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), at least 13 cancers (with an emphasis on the words at least, and also cancer) are clearly linked to excess body fat.

For the study, researchers from the CDC (C. Brooke Steele, DO,; Cheryll C. Thomas, MSPH, S. Jane Henley, MSPH, Greta M. Massetti, PhD, Deborah A. Galuska, PhD, Tanya Agurs-Collins, PhD, Mary Puckett, PhD, and Lisa C. Richardson, MD) analyzed data from the United States Cancer Statistics and found that from 2005 to 2014 the incidence of all overweight- and obesity-related cancers (except for colorectal cancer) increased significantly among people from 20 to 74 years old.