Cancer risk fears for obese women

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Two thirds are cases of womb or breast cancer in middle aged and older women.

The findings from the Million Women Study, the biggest investigation of cancer risk factors in women ever undertaken, are the latest to highlight the cancer dangers of being too fat.

Last week a major report from the World Cancer Research Fund said there was now "convincing" evidence that being overweight can cause six different types of common cancer, including those affecting the breast, bowel and pancreas.

It urged people to stay at the lower end of the healthy weight range, take exercise, and avoid processed meats such as ham and bacon.

The new study, funded by Cancer Research UK, looked at the factors behind around 45,000 cases of cancer occurring in more than a million women over seven years. Its results are published in an online edition of the British Medical Journal.

Chief researcher Dr Gillian Reeves, from Oxford University, said: "Based on our findings, we estimate that being overweight or obese accounts for around 6,000 out of a total 120,000 new cases of cancer each year among middle-aged and older women in the UK.

"Our research also shows that being overweight has a much bigger impact on the risk of some cancers than others. Two thirds of the additional 6,000 cancers each year due to excess weight or obesity would be cancers of the womb or breast."

Half of all womb lining cancers and cases of one type of oesophagus cancer in this group of women were caused by excess weight, said the scientists.

The researchers matched Body Mass Index (BMI) against cancer incidence to identify the risk from being overweight. The research showed that the relationship between BMI and cancer risk depended on a woman's stage in life. Being overweight increased the risk of breast cancer only after the menopause, and the risk of bowel cancer only before the menopause.