A large new study found that people who lost significant amounts of weight through bariatric surgery gained a striking benefit: Their likelihood of developing cancer fell sharply.
The study, published on [June 3] in JAMA, followed more than 30,000 adults with obesity for about a decade. It found that those who underwent weight loss surgery had a 32 percent lower risk of developing cancer and a 48 percent lower risk of dying from the disease, compared with a similar group of people who did not have the surgery. On average, the people who had weight loss surgery lost about 55 pounds more than those who did not over the course of the study. The researchers found that the more weight people lost, the more their cancer risk fell.
While the new research focused on weight loss through bariatric surgery, the authors of the study speculated that the benefit would apply to weight loss through other methods as well, such as diet and exercise or the use of weight loss medications. Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a co-author of the study, said the findings “provide one more reason why people who are obese should lose weight.”
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“It’s an important public health message,” said Dr. Nissen, the chief academic officer of the Heart, Vascular and Thoracic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. “I think a lot of the public doesn’t understand or realize that obesity is such a strong risk factor for cancer, and they certainly don’t understand that it’s reversible.”
