Tom's Life Bits

Researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have reported that obesity during early adulthood increases the risk of pancreatic cancer and that obesity at an older age was associated with a lower survival from pancreatic cancer. The details of this study appeared in the June 24, 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.[1]

Obesity is increasingly being recognized as a risk factor not only for cancer development but also for worse outcomes after cancer treatment. Links between obesity and endometrial cancer, postmenopausal breast cancer, and colorectal cancer are well established, but the effects of obesity appear to extend to several other types of cancer as well. According to the results of a large study conducted by the American Cancer Society, women with the highest a body mass indexes (BMI) were more likely than women with a healthy BMI to die of cancers of the gallbladder, pancreas, kidney, cervix, and ovary, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. These researchers estimated that 90,000 cancer deaths per year could be prevented if Americans maintained a healthy weight.

A recent study from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Colorado reported that pancreatic cancer patients with BMI greater than 35 have a greater risk of recurrence and worse survival after surgery than patients with a lower BMI.

The current data were generated in a case-control study involving 841 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma and 754 controls. These authors made the following observations:

• Individuals who were overweight during the ages of 14-39 years had 67% increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
• Individuals who were obese during the ages of 20 and 49 yeas had a 2.5-fold increase in the risk of developing pancreatic cancer.
• The risk was higher in men compared with women and smokers compared with non-smokers.
• Individuals who were overweight or obese during young adulthood also had an earlier onset (two to six years) of pancreatic cancer than normal weight individuals developing pancreatic cancer.
• Individuals who were overweight from the ages of 30-70 or at the time of diagnosis had a 26% increased risk of pancreatic death irrespective of stage of disease.

These authors concluded: “Overweight or obesity during early adulthood was associated with a greater risk of pancreatic cancer and younger age of disease onset. Obesity at an older age was associated with a lower overall survival in patients with pancreatic cancer.”

Comments: These are compelling data for the role of obesity in pancreatic cancer and confirm other studies.

Reference:

[1] Li D, Morris J, Liu J, et al. Body mass index and risk, age of onset, and survival in patients with pancreatic cancer. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2009;301:2553-2562.