Obese people have a 1.5-4 times increased risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, colorectal, gall bladder, kidney, and thyroid gland.
Tausif Ahmed Thangalvadi, Medical Director of NURA, a collaboration between Fujifilm Healthcare and Kutty’s Healthcare in Bengaluru to offer AI-powered imaging, highlighted key findings from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) task force document on World Cancer. Day.
How Obesity Causes Cancer
Thangalvadi, a 2019 study found that obesity-related cancers account for about 4 percent of the global cancer burden.
According to UNICEF’s World Obesity Atlas 2022, India is projected to have 2.7 million children suffering from obesity by 2030.
“There are many ways obesity increases the risk of cancer,” Thangalvadi said. “Adipose tissue in the human body releases excessive levels of estrogen, which increases the risk of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancer in women. At high levels, obese people have insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF- 1) increases the risk of colorectal, kidney and prostate cancer. Obesity also causes chronic inflammation and oxidative stress in tissues, which further increases the risk of cancer.”
Source: IANS
