Posted on 11/01/2005 9:01:33 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
In the United States, roughly 10 per cent of all cancers, more than 100,000 cases a year, could be avoided if overweight and obesity did not exist, updated statistics on the proportion of cancer due to obesity say.
The new projections stem from a review of published studies, updates to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report from 2002, and data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which includes 116,686 women, Dr Graham Colditz said at a press briefing at the American Association for Cancer Research's international conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.
By applying the current US levels of overweight and obesity, Dr Colditz from the Harvard School of Public Health estimated that 14 per cent of colon cancers would be avoided if no one was overweight or obese.
Likewise, if no one was overweight or obese, "we would avoid 11 per cent of breast cancer - over 18,000 cases; 49 per cent of endometrial cancer, almost 20,000 cases; 31 per cent of kidney cancer, over 11,000 cases; 39 per cent of oesophageal cancer, 5,500 cases; 14 per cent of pancreas cancers, 4,500 cases; 20 per cent of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, over 11,000 cases; and for multiple myeloma 17 per cent of cases," Dr Colditz said.
He says given the increasing prevalence of obesity in the US, these estimates are conservative.
"We can clearly conclude that adult overweight and obesity cause cancer and increasing rates of obesity in the US are continuing to drive up the burden of these cancers," Dr Colditz said.
He says the data "reinforce the message to avoid weight gain as an adult and to lose weight and keep it off if one is overweight or obese as this can reduce the risk of cancer in addition to other chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke."
They say all this as if there were a way to permanently avoid dying.
"What DOESN'T cause cancer?
They can and DO say that everything causes cancer! What's next...breathing causes cancer?
Thin people never die?
This is ludicrous. Look at the people you know who have cancer, under 50, the ones I know are almost all skinny and are avid health/exercise junkies, while the morbidly obese are cancer-free.
This was probably skewed because it took into consideration people over 70 who are overweight.
Da-ah, if you're over 70 and you haven't yet died of a heart attack, OF COURSE you're probably going to die of cancer.
This is ludicrous. Look at the people you know who have cancer, under 50, the ones I know are almost all skinny and are avid health/exercise junkies, while the morbidly obese are cancer-free.
My Dr told me that every old man had cancer cells in his prostrate.
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