Obesity linked to cancer in women

Obesity linked to cancer in women
Thousands of middle aged women are suffering from cancer every year because they are overweight, the largest British study of its kind has concluded.

About 6,000 cases of cancer each year in women in their 50s and early 60s are attributed to them being obese, Oxford University researchers have found.

The result of being overweight was particularly striking when it came to women who had gone on to develop womb cancer and a certain type of throat cancer — as half of all cases were linked to weight.

The study of more than a million women also found that being overweight significantly increased the risk of kidney cancer, leukaemia, multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, ovarian cancer and, in some age-groups, breast and bowel cancer.

The study comes after a report suggested that a third of all cancers are linked to diet and weight. Researchers have warned that the obesity epidemic is set to worsen with over half of adults and a quarter of children predicted to be overweight by 2050.