Oct 28, 2026 · 21 min · 10 segments
Most people know obesity can raise the risk of diabetes and heart disease. Fewer know it is also linked to at least 12 types of cancer. Dr. Kristy Brown explains what researchers know about the…
Steve StitesHostSo this is also a translational science review, which means that we're pushing things beyond the epidemiological data, really, you know, the evidence that links obesity to cancer, for example, and delving into the mechanistic aspects that really tie in that relationship.
And then that also goes one step further to look at the studies that have been undertaken to try to mitigate that risk.
So the lifestyle intervention studies or the weight management interventions and how that impacts.
So we really started off with the traditional definition of obesity, which is when someone has a body mass index or a BMI of 30 and above.
And the way that we calculate our BMI is dividing our weight by our height square.
because BMI is that number, but it's not enough for us to be able to understand how that influences risk.
So one example is that having obesity, for example, but also having one feature of metabolic syndrome, and that can be hypertension, dyslipidemia, or insulin resistance, really pushes people into that highest category of risk when it comes to cancer even more so than someone who has obesity without those kinds of factors.
So to us what that does is that it really highlights that there are more dimensions to this and also we might be able to be able to define those markers of risk a little bit better in our populations but also maybe the areas that we can target for risk reduction.
Yeah, you know, so that's an interesting thing that makes me a little nervous for her because I was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and being pre-diabetic metformin has helped with that a lot.
that's something I've been treating patients for for years, and I didn't like hearing it about myself.
Chronic inflammation causes chronic problems for us, and that's a little concerning.
So what is your confidence level of this link between obesity, especially even mild obesity and metabolic syndrome on these different cancers?
So this is also a translational science review, which means that we're pushing things beyond the epidemiological data, really, you know, the evidence that links obesity to cancer, for example, and delving into the mechanistic aspects that really tie in that relationship.
And then that also goes one step further to look at the studies that have been undertaken to try to mitigate that risk.
So the lifestyle intervention studies or the weight management interventions and how that impacts.
So we really started off with the traditional definition of obesity, which is when someone has a body mass index or a BMI of 30 and above.
And the way that we calculate our BMI is dividing our weight by our height square.
because BMI is that number, but it's not enough for us to be able to understand how that influences risk.
So one example is that having obesity, for example, but also having one feature of metabolic syndrome, and that can be hypertension, dyslipidemia, or insulin resistance, really pushes people into that highest category of risk when it comes to cancer even more so than someone who has obesity without those kinds of factors.
So to us what that does is that it really highlights that there are more dimensions to this and also we might be able to be able to define those markers of risk a little bit better in our populations but also maybe the areas that we can target for risk reduction.
Yeah, you know, so that's an interesting thing that makes me a little nervous for her because I was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome and being pre-diabetic metformin has helped with that a lot.
that's something I've been treating patients for for years, and I didn't like hearing it about myself.
Chronic inflammation causes chronic problems for us, and that's a little concerning.
So what is your confidence level of this link between obesity, especially even mild obesity and metabolic syndrome on these different cancers?
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