Cancer

Cancer affects more than half a million lives per year in the United States alone.

Overview

Cancer affects more than half a million lives per year in the United States alone. Obesity is believed to cause up to 90,000 cancer deaths each year. As body mass index (BMI) increases, so does your risk of cancer and death from cancer. These cancers include:

  • Endometrial cancer

  • Cervical cancer

  • Ovarian cancer

  • Postmenopausal breast cancer

  • Colorectal cancer

  • Esophageal cancer

  • Pancreatic cancer

  • Gallbladder cancer

  • Liver cancer

  • Kidney cancer

  • Thyroid cancer

  • Prostate cancer
  • Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
  • Multiple myeloma 
  • Leukemia

For people with severe obesity, the death rate increases for all types of cancer. The death rate is 52 percent higher for men and 62 percent higher for women (1).

1. Calle, Eugenia E., et al. “Overweight, obesity, and mortality from cancer in a prospectively studied cohort of US adults.” New England Journal of Medicine 348.17 (2003): 1625-1638.

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