November 25, 2024 — A new study presented at the Annual Scientific Sessions of the American College of Gastroenterology tells us receiving a GLP-1 for diabetes with or without obesity is associated with a halving of pancreatic cancer risk. Is this too good to be true? Observational, of Course The first thing to note is that the finding comes […]
August 13, 2024 — For the second time in the past few months, a signal from the surveillance of GLP-1 agonists is surfacing to suggest that these drugs may offer a risk reduction strategy for cancer. Earlier, the signal came from a study of persons receiving treatment for diabetes. The present study, presented at the recent annual meeting for […]
August 24, 2023 — Let’s start with a few simple facts. Obesity causes cancer. Not every kind of cancer, but for at least a dozen types of cancer, obesity can clearly play a causal role. Scientists attribute between four and eight percent of all cancers to obesity. It is also true that, for now, the most effective single treatment […]
May 2, 2023 — Yet again we are reminded that bariatric surgery has quite an impressive record for improving the health of people with obesity. In a retrospective cohort study of 55,789 patients receiving bariatric surgery, risk of obesity-related cancer came down by half. Researchers matched the non-surgical control group using propensity scores for demographics, comorbidity, hormone therapy, and […]
March 21, 2023 — Both colon cancer and obesity are rising in young people. In fact, a new report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians suggests colorectal cancer is on the way to becoming the deadliest cancer for people under 50. While colon cancer death rates are dropping for older persons, they are headed in the opposite direction […]
February 24, 2022 — “Bariatric surgery may be a powerful tool in breast cancer prevention and treatment,” write Trevor Crafts and colleagues in a new review paper for Obesity. But there’s just one problem. All of the research that points to this possible value is observational. So we need a prospective clinical trial of bariatric surgery to reduce the […]
August 26, 2020 — Can obesity care and prevention lead to less death, cancer, and other complications of obesity? This question has been a hard one to answer. For one thing, we’re not too good at prevention. Obesity rates keep going up, not down. However, on the plus side, we have pretty good data on preventing death, cancer, and […]
July 8, 2019 — The angst caused by Cancer Research UK’s Obesity-Is-Like-Smoking campaign is continuing to bubble. At this point, approximately 6,000 people have signed a petition asking the charity to stop it. We’ve been clear enough about how bad this campaign is. However, it’s worth noting a surprisingly thoughtful argument for the campaign from Deborah James. Believe it […]
July 1, 2018 — For some time now, the evidence has been pretty clear about obesity and breast cancer in older women. Obesity brings a 20-40% increase in breast cancer risk to women after menopause. But before menopause, the opposite is true. Now, new research provides a much clearer picture for younger women. A new study in JAMA Oncology […]
October 9, 2017 — Do you think the primary risks of obesity are diabetes and heart disease? Well, perhaps you should think again. The link between obesity and cancer clearly deserves your attention. A new report published in the CDC MMWR examines trends in cancers associated with obesity. Brooke Steele and colleagues found that 40% of all cancers diagnosed in […]
