Dana-Farber colleagues Charles Fuchs (left) and Jeffrey Meyerhardt, both MDs, have found that taking the stairs and other forms of exercise improve the outlook for colon cancer patients.
Sounding the alarm
A wakeup call came in 2003, when the New England Journal of Medicine published a landmark report on the largest study of its kind concerning body weight and cancer mortality. Carried out by American Cancer Society (ACS) researchers, the analysis of data on 900,000 adults followed since 1982 led to a sobering estimate: The epidemic of overweight and obesity may account for as much as 14 percent of all cancer deaths in men, and 20 percent in women. Other data suggest that in 2002, about 41,000 new cases of cancer—or some 3.2 percent of all new cases—were due to obesity.
Particularly concerning is the long list of cancers in which the ACS study found elevated risk among heavier people. It includes cancers of the esophagus, colon and rectum, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, and kidney; non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma; cancers of the stomach and prostate in men; and of the breast, uterus, cervix, and ovary in women.
"The finding that so many cancers were related to being overweight and obese got people thinking in a way they hadn't before," says Eugenia Calle, PhD, the ACS scientist who led the study. "We have a real public health problem."
The distinction between being "overweight" and "obese" is based on measurements of body mass index, or BMI, a ratio of height to weight (see chart, following page). The National Institutes of Health classi- fies individuals with a BMI of less than 18.5 as underweight, 18.5 to 24.9 healthy (normal), 25 to 29.9 overweight, and more than 30, obese. A 6-foot-tall male who weighs between 137 and 183 pounds would be normal; 184 to 220 overweight; and greater than 220, obese.
- Next: A critical balance
- Page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
