Obesity and Breast Cancer

It wasn't until seven years ago that even the medical
community fully understood the link between body
fat and cancer risk.

"We used to think that adipose tissue, or body fat,
was just there doing nothing," said Dr. Elisa
Bandera, a cancer epidemiologist at the Cancer
Institute of New Jersey.

"Now we know adipose is very active and transforms
androgen into estrogen," she added. "Most of the
estrogen that postmenopausal women have in their
bodies is from the adipose tissue. This has become
a very serious issue in cancer prevention."

The shift in understanding was confirmed in 2003
when The New England Journal of Medicine
published a paper by the American Cancer Society
linking obesity to all kinds of cancerous tumors.

Losing excess weight helps prevent breast cancer in
women and decreases the risk of recurrence in
breast cancer survivors.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Obesity
• BC