Obesity May Double Your Colorectal Cancer Risk

Summary: A new Australian study shows that overweight and obesity are independent risk factors for colorectal cancers. Overweight individuals are more than twice as likely to develop polyps, adenomas, and, consequently, colorectal cancer. Moreover, overweight individuals are more likely to be diagnosed with cancer at a younger age.

 It is well-known that obesity increases the risk of various cancer types. This is due to changes in metabolic rate, inflammation, and other reasons. However, studies show that even if we adjust for the so-called other reasons, like wrong dietary choices or lack of physical activity, obesity still significantly increases colorectal cancer risk.

These findings from an Australian study are vital to understand. The study shows that even if you have a relatively healthy lifestyle, even marginally higher body weight may increase your risk of developing colorectal cancer. The study shows that in most individuals, obesity increases this risk significantly.

These study findings are relevant in many ways. Colorectal cancer (colon and rectal cancer combined) is among the top five most common cancer types in the US. Each year, more than 150,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed, and it causes more than 50,000 deaths each year.

Contact Us Today

It is true that a significant number of cancer cases may occur due to non-modifiable risk factors like genetics. However, it is becoming more evident that certain lifestyle choices or modifiable risk factors play a significant role, if not a predominant role.

This is the reason we keep repeating in our articles that readers need to understand that metabolic disorders are associated with significantly increased cancer risk. Obesity is not just about higher diabetes or heart disease risk. It is also about higher inflammation, greater risk of poor gut health, higher risk of developing polyps, and so on.

At present, there is not much known about ways to prevent colorectal cancer except regular screening and removal of polyps. However, now, an increasing number of studies show that weight management should be a part of our fight against cancer, including colorectal cancer.

This new study was carried out in Australia, but this does not reduce its significance, considering that obesity is an even greater problem in the US.

This study found that a BMI greater than 25 was associated with a 2.26 times greater risk of developing polyps, 2.64 times adenoma, and 2.66 times non-advanced adenoma. Hence, they found that overweight was an independent risk factor for colorectal cancer.

Here, it is worth noticing that the study included individuals with a BMI above 25, which is not even an obesity. A BMI of 25 to 30 is regarded as overweight, and obesity is when BMI is above 30. This means that even moderately overweight individuals are at an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.

As one can see, investigators here focused on the incidence of polys and adenomas, known to increase colorectal cancer risk significantly. So, being overweight increases the risk of these conditions, which are known to significantly increase a person’s chances of developing colorectal cancer.

Further, it is also vital to notice that unlike more common cancer types like lung or prostate cancer in men, colorectal cancer is more likely to be diagnosed in relatively young individuals. Thus, it is the leading cause of cancer-related death in men younger than 50 years old and the second most cause of cancer-related death in women after breast cancer.

Although regular screening of adults older than 50 years and timely treatment of polys and adenomas have reduced colorectal cancer rates in the last few years, its decline has slowed down in the last couple of decades. Another issue is the increasing rates of colorectal among adults younger than 50 years of age.

All the above findings show that the increased problem of overweight and obesity is fueling the epidemic of colorectal cancer, more so in young adults. Hence, it is vital to reduce body weight through lifestyle interventions to reduce its risk.

Source:

Kumar, R., Brown, A., Okano, S., Simms, L., Lord, A., O’Sullivan, T., Hartel, G., & Radford-Smith, G. L. (2024). Overweight and obesity are associated with colorectal neoplasia in an Australian outpatient population. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 23501. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-74042-y