Obesity, in addition to being a risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, is also a major risk for nine different cancers, delegates attending a conference in Dublin heard yesterday.
New Irish research presented at the conference showed how significant a factor obesity is in patients presenting with just one type of cancer, of the oesophagus or gullet.
The study of more than 750 patients seen at Dublin's St James's Hospital with cancer of the oesophagus over a 10-year period found 82 per cent were either overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis.
Ms Aoife Ryan, a research dietitian at St James's, said adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus was the cancer with the fastest-growing incidence in the world, and growth in obesity levels was fuelling this. "Since the early 1990s we have seen a doubling in the incidence of obesity prior to disease," she said.
"We found the risk of developing adenocarcinoma of the oesophagus is four times higher if you are obese," she added.
The disease was mainly a male one, she said, pointing out that men were at greater risk because they usually carry weight around their waist, where it is most hazardous, compared to women who tend to carry weight on their hips and thighs.
Latest figures indicate 300 new cases of oesophageal cancer were diagnosed in the Republic in 2000.
Ms Ryan said obesity was also known to increase the risk of developing eight other cancers, including cancers of the colon, breast, uterus, kidney, pancreas, gallbladder, liver and top of the stomach.
"36,000 cancer deaths could be avoided in the EU alone every year if we just halved the incidence of overweight and obesity," she said.
"If you are overweight even reducing your weight by 10 per cent has enormous clinical benefits for blood pressure, cholesterol, blood glucose, and all of the hormones secreted by fat significantly drop as well," she said. She explained that a 5 ft 4 in woman was considered clinically obese at 12¾ stone, while a 5 ft 9 in male was considered clinically obese at 14½ stone.