Study says Surgery Can Cut Cancer Risk for Morbidly Obese Patients
By Hugh C. McBride
A study by researchers with the McGill University Health Center in Montreal, Canada, shows that morbidly obese individuals who undergo successful bariatric surgery may reduce their risk of developing some types of cancer by as much as 80 percent.
According to a news release posted on the MUHC website, researchers compared data on more than 1,000 morbidly obese patients who had bariatric surgery there between 1986 and 2002 with health information on 5,746 patients with similar weight profiles who did not have the surgery. The researchers discovered that the rate of cancer diagnosis for the patients who had the surgery was 85 percent lower for breast cancer and 70 percent lower for colon and pancreatic cancer than it was among those who didn't have the procedure.
"This is one of the first studies to suggest that bariatric surgery might prevent the risk of cancer for a significant percentage of morbidly obese people," said Dr. Nicolas Christou, who led the study and presented the preliminary results June 18 during the 25th annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery in Washington, D.C. "We're hoping that these results will help the government and public health authorities realize the importance of this procedure in the fight against the various pathologies associated with obesity," Christou added.
Because obesity has such a complex effect on health, Christou noted that further research is called for to determine the relationship between bariatric surgery and a patient's likelihood of developing the types of cancers that were addressed in this study.
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