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Gradual weight loss may reduce the risk of developing 13 types of cancer
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Losing weight may protect you from obesity-related cancers, a new study shows. The results are published in the journal Diabetes.
Obesity is linked to an increased risk of at least 13 types of cancer, researchers say. This is largely due to excess levels of hormones such as estrogen and insulin.
However, the study findings suggest that losing weight may improve a person's chances of avoiding these cancers, including breast, kidney, ovarian, liver and pancreatic cancers.
“This study highlights the importance of treating obesity as a chronic disease,” said study researcher Dr. Kenda Alquatli, a clinical fellow at the Cleveland Clinic. “We hope these findings will help us better understand how weight loss can be used to address comorbidities, including cancer, in obese patients.”
For the study, researchers evaluated electronic health records of more than 100,000 obese patients at the Cleveland Clinic, of whom more than 5,300 developed cancer. They tracked changes in BMI three, five, and 10 years before cancer diagnosis and compared them with a control group.
They found that losing weight could reduce the risk of most obesity-related cancers over five years. For example, the risk of kidney cancer was reduced over three years, and the risk of endometrial cancer was reduced over three and five years. The risk of multiple myeloma was reduced over ten years.
What's more, weight loss has also been shown to protect against a number of other non-obesity-related cancers, such as melanoma and cancers of the skin, lung, genital, eye, brain and digestive organs.
The researchers plan to further study whether anti-obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound can reduce the risk of cancer.
The researchers presented their findings Friday at the American Diabetes Association's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida. Results presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.