Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Link Between Obesity and Pancreatic Cancer
A new study shows a link between childhood obesity and a higher risk of developing pancreatic cancer as adults. The new study was published by Donghui Li, a professor of cancer medicine at the University of Texas in The Journal of the American Medical Association, according to an article in The New York Times.
The study findings show that people who were overweight teens or obese in their 20s and 30s were at more than twice the risk of those people who had never been obese to developing pancreatic cancer.
Details of the study
The Times quotes Dr. Li as saying that the study shows that it is very important to make sure that young people control their weight to reduce the chance they will develop pancreatic cancer. The researchers studied the cases of 841 pancreatic cancer patients and compared them to 754 people of similar age, race, and sex who were healthy, according to the article.
The Times said the researchers obtained personal medical histories of the people in the study including:
- height and weight
- alcohol use
- smoking
- family medical history
- personal medical history
Other risk factors
Smoking and diabetes also increase the risk of developing pancreatic cancer. According to statistics, obesity was a factor in 27% of cases, and smoking was a factor in 25% of cases of pancreatic cancer. According to the Times, Dr. Li said obesity increases the risk of cancer, even without diabetes.
Facts about childhood obesity
Childhood obesity has become a serious public health problem, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A recent Child Obesity conference held at University of California-Berkeley presented federal data that shows the number of obese children in the U.S. has doubled for children aged 6-11 years, and tripled among children aged 12-19 years.
Research shows that obese children are more likely to develop hazardous health problems such as heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes.
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