Obesity ‘increases the risk of ovarian cancer in older women by 80%’
Reported January 05, 2009
Obesity can put older women at higher risk of ovarian cancer, researchers have found.
Studies showed overweight women aged between 50 and 71 are 80 per cent more likely to have the disease than those of healthy weight.
But fat women who took hormone replacement therapy faced no greater risk of contracting the disease.
The findings, reported in the journal Cancer, support the theory that obesity may increase the risk of the cancer through hormonal effects.
Almost a quarter of British women are obese – so fat that their health is in danger.
Experts warn that by 2050, more than half of women will be obese, putting an intolerable strain on the NHS. More than 6,000 women a year in the UK are diagnosed with cancer of the ovaries and the annual death toll is around 4,500.
It is the most fatal of gynaecological cancers, with less than 40 per cent of sufferers surviving five years after diagnosis.
Scientists believe the link with obesity occurs because adipose tissue, which holds excess fat around the stomach, secretes oestrogen, the female sex hormone.
This hormone may stimulate the growth of ovarian cells and play a role in the development of cancer. The researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute studied almost 95,000 women over a period of seven years.
A total of 303 developed ovarian cancer. Among those who had never taken hormones after the menopause, obesity increased the risk of the disease by almost 80 per cent.
The association was only seen in women who had never been on HRT after the menopause. No link between body weight and ovarian cancer was evident among women who had been on HRT.
However, genetics may also play a role. In the study, there was no link between weight and risk of ovarian cancer if the woman had a family history of the disease.
Experts have warned of a link between obesity and some types of cancer. Kidney cancer and cancer of the womb lining, both linked to obesity, have seen sharp rises in recent years. Two years ago, Dr Greg Martin of the World Cancer Research Fund, warned of a ‘cancer timebomb’ linked to rising rates of obesity.
He said: ‘A lot of people still do not realise how closely obesity is related to cancer. People getting fatter will lead to an increase in the number of cancer cases as surely as night follows day.
‘You also have to add into the mix that cancer is largely an older person’s disease, and the UK has an ageing population. So if you have an ageing population that is getting more obese, there could be really serious consequences in terms of the number of people getting cancer if we do not act now. It’s a cancer timebomb.’
