Excess weight contributes to more than 7 per cent of cancers

More than 7 per cent of cancer cases in the U.S. are attributable to excess body weight, a study reports. Previous studies have established an association between body fat and at least a dozen cancers, with the highest risks for liver, uterine and esophageal cancers. The report, in JAMA Oncology, found that from 2011 to 2015, among people 30 and older, 4.7 per cent of cancers in men and 9.6 per cent of those in women were attributable to excess weight. The highest rates of weight-associated cancer are in the South, the Midwest, Alaska and Washington D.C.; the lowest were in the Mountain States, New England and Hawaii. More than 8 per cent of cancers in Texas and Washington, D.C., are associated with body fatness, but only 6 per cent in Colorado and 5.9 per cent in Hawaii. The lead author, Farhad Islami, a scientific director at the American Cancer Society, said that the fat attributable portion of cancer cases will be likely to increase in coming years with increasing obesity.