Being overweight increases risk of cancer

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In the British Medical Journal (BMJ) this week there is an article about excess weight and cancer risk. 

With an estimated 62% of the UK adult population being classed as overweight, doctors have been concerned about people being overweight for some time. This article highlights grave reasons for concern other than heart disease.  

This weeks BMJ literature review covers many different academic papers, asking the question " what is the strength and validity of evidence for an association between being fat and risk of developing or dying from cancer"?

After a rigourous review of the evidence, the article showed strong evidence for association with obesity in 11 cancers. The commentary the article explains that there is a clear association between developing cancer and high BMI or high abdominal circumference.

It seems that being fat increases the risk of most digestive system cancers as well as uterus and postmenopausal breast cancer. 

The conclusion is that we must prevent excess adult weight gain to reduce our risk of cancer. Also data measurements suggest that excess body fat in childhood increases the risk of cancer in later life.


Many people are unaware that being overweight causes increased risk of cancer, most of us think about heart disease risk which is also important; however it is clear that with excess fat come changes in metabolism, which push us towards a high-risk state and can cause many different life shortening diseases, from cancer to heart disease and diabetes.


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