According to a new study conducted by the American Cancer Society, people’s cancer risk increases as they get older.
The study finds that young people who are predisposed to obesity may face an even larger danger as they age.
Dr. Anil Heroor, Director at Advanced OncoSurgery Unit in Fortis Hospitals said that “in order to understand the damage that obesity is already causing, consider that one in six cancer deaths in men and one in seven cancer deaths in women are related to the condition.”
Obesity is connected to nearly six types of cancer and is slowly on the rise among people under the age of 50. “These are colon or rectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, gallbladder cancer, uterine cancer (also called endometrial cancer), and multiple myeloma,” according to the reports. These are often not discovered in younger people until the disease is advanced.
“Fat is dynamic; it doesn’t just sit in one place. It can become dysfunctional, resulting in inflammation, which increases the risk of developing cancer. Many of the cancers linked to obesity are in organs that are embedded in pads of fat. In addition, excess fat can influence the whole body causing a systemic effect,” Dr. Heroor commented.
He further added that people with dysfunctional fat tissue often have altered levels of hormones, such as insulin and estrogen. These changes can damage DNA and cause cancer in various organs as well as blood malignancies like multiple myeloma. “The one good thing is that at least one-third of common cancers are preventable,” Dr. Herror added.
