Weight-Loss Surgical Treatment Cuts Cancer Risks in Women

Weight-loss surgery may help corpulent women lower their risk of developing cancer, Swedish researchers said.

They found women who had weight-loss surgery were 42 percent less likely to build up cancer during a 10-year study published in the journal Lancet Oncology.

Men in the study did not benefit, possibly because many cancers are driven by female hormones such as estrogen, they said, or basically because fewer men get weight-loss surgery.

Obesity has long been known to raise the risk of cancer, and the verification continues to mount.

A study released on 23rd June in the Journal of the American Medical Association found people who were obese as young adults had twice the risk of developing pancreatic cancer, and particularly aggressive kind.

Weight-loss operations -- in which doctors change the digestive system's structure to cut the volume of food a person can eat -- have been shown to reverse diabetes and reduce the risks of dying from heart disease.

The Swedish study, led by Lars Sjostrom of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, equated 2,010 obese patients who had weight-loss surgery with 2,037 obese patients who got normal diet and exercise treatment.

Overall, they found the surgery helped people maintain a standard weight loss of 19.9 kg or about 43 pounds over 10 years. People in the diet and exercise group gained a normal of 1.3 kg or nearly 3 pounds during the study period.

The surgery cut the rates of cancer by a third, but women loved most of that benefit. Among women, there were 79 first-time cancers in the surgery group, and 130 among those who got standard treatment.

Dr. Andrew Renehan of the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom said in a commentary the absence of an advantage in men could simply reflect the number of men who were in the study.

He said for women, the supreme cancer prevention effects were likely to be post-menopausal breast and endometrial cancers -- cancers receptive to hormone levels.