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Being overweight can bring cancer closer to developing
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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American experts claim that about 40% of cancer cases in the population are associated with obesity. This does not mean that any overweight person will definitely get cancer: however, they have a significantly increased risk of developing thirteen types of cancer. American health authorities admit that they cannot yet scientifically explain this trend. "Based on the results of our latest study, we can assume that different degrees of obesity were the causes of cancer in more than 600 thousand residents of the United States in 2014. We are talking about thirteen types of cancer - including brain cancer, widespread myeloma, breast and esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, genitals, thyroid cancer and colon cancer," the researchers say. According to Anne Shuchat, executive director of the Center for Health, the relationship between obesity and cancer has no scientific explanation yet. According to surveys, those people who are actively involved in cancer prevention do not pay enough attention to the fight against excess weight. This fact has greatly alarmed epidemiologists: "We know that excess weight leads to hormonal disorders and metabolic disorders. Obesity causes an increase in the amount of estrogen and insulin, potentiates the course of inflammatory reactions, which directly affects the processes of cell division." Of the more than 600 thousand cancer patients whose disease was associated with obesity, the overwhelming majority were patients from 50 to 74 years old. Over nine years, the number of such cases in the United States has increased by 7%. It was also noted that cancer diseases not associated with obesity have become much less - their number has decreased by 13%. Such values are indicative: especially if you consider that in America 60-70% of adults suffer from one or another degree of obesity. It is noteworthy that white women suffer from cancer due to obesity much more often than white men (55% and 24%, respectively). Among African Americans, the situation is completely opposite. The experts wrote about all the details of the study in their weekly report. Farhad Islami, the strategic director of oncological research at the American Cancer Society, also points to other important factors in the development of cancer. The World Society for Cancer Research provided information that every fifth case of cancer in the world is associated not only with obesity, but also with a sedentary lifestyle, alcohol consumption or poor nutrition. As for the influence of nicotine, this factor should be singled out separately - it has long been proven that smoking can cause not only lung cancer, but also stomach cancer. It is important to note that the danger of oncology should be considered not only by people with a fixed degree of obesity: any amount of excess fat can negatively affect health and lead to the development of malignant neoplasms.
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