Increasing BMI Is Associated with Increased Cancer Risk and Mortality in Women

A growing body of evidence indicates that obesity (body-mass index, ≥30 kg/m²) is associated with all-cause mortality, disability, and specific diseases such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, and osteoarthritis. Less is known, however, about the relation between obesity and cancer.

U.K. investigators examined the relation between BMI and cancer incidence and mortality in more than 1.2 million women (age range, 50–64). During about 5 years of follow-up for cancer incidence and 7 years for cancer mortality, increasing BMI was associated with increased risk for 10 of 17 specific types of cancers (endometrial, kidney, pancreatic, ovarian, postmenopausal breast, and premenopausal colon cancers, and esophageal adenocarcinoma, leukemia, multipl…