The link between obesity and increased cancer risk is supported by sufficient evidence. Can bariatric surgery be of any help here? Yes, says the latest news from the medical world. Weight loss after the surgery may help lower the risk of cancer.
Now that bariatric procedures have been around, experts can finally analyze the connection. Research with 40 years of follow-up has now confirmed that, at least for women, weight-loss surgery can reduce long-term cancer risks.
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According to a new study published in Obesity, the flagship publication of The Obesity Society (TOS), female surgery patients had a considerably lower cancer death rate than non-surgical participants.
Researchers in the current study evaluated cancer incidence and mortality stratified by malignancies associated with obesity, and cancers unrelated to obesity, sex, disease stage, and technique. A total of roughly 22,000 people who underwent bariatric surgery between 1982 and 2019 were contrasted with similarly obese people who did not have surgery. Critical features such as age, sex, and body mass index were matched between the subjects.
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The risks with different types of cancer were less in women after weight loss due to the surgery.
“Important findings of this study are that bariatric surgery results in lower incidence rates of colon cancer (prior studies have not been consistent). Also, both pre-and post-menopausal women experience reduced breast cancer incidence following bariatric surgery, which may suggest weight loss among women in either category with severe obesity may benefit from reduced breast cancer,” says Ted D. Adams, University of Utah. Besides, Adams is the corresponding author of the study.