A Link Between Fat and Cancer

Being overweight accounts for up to a third of all cases of cancer, but most of the U.S. public does not realize this, a survey released on July 11, 2002 shows. Only 25 percent of more than 1,000 adults surveyed knew that obesity is associated with a higher risk of colon, breast and perhaps other cancers, according to the American Institute of Cancer Research, which funds study into the links between diet, exercise and cancer.

The Harris poll conducted in June showed that most adults -- nearly 90 percent -- know that being obese can lead to diabetes and heart disease. But it showed they remain ignorant about other factors, with just 22 percent realizing the sun can cause skin cancer and 18 percent knowing that a high-fat diet is associated with cancer.

With 61 percent of the American population now classified as being overweight, and more than 25 percent obese, this could mean a steady increase in the cancer rate in years to come, Phil James, chairman of the International Obesity Task Force, told a news conference.

"If we don't do something about it soon, we are going to be in terrible trouble," James said. People in other industrialized countries such as Britain are catching up, and James said the obesity epidemic also is bad in some countries of the Middle East. A person who is more than 20 percent above his or her maximum healthy body weight is considered obese. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in developed countries, but cancer comes in second, killing more than 500,000 Americans a year. After lung cancer -- caused almost exclusively by smoking -- breast, prostate and colon cancer are the biggest cancer killers.

"If we lost weight, the nation's health would improve and we would have less cancer," Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University said. "Thirty to 40 percent of all cancers could be prevented by eating a better diet and getting more exercise." He said cancers of the breast, colon, uterus, prostate and gallbladder all are associated with obesity.

The AICR advocates eating a diet based on vegetables, fruit and whole grains, and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise five days a week to reduce the risk of cancer.