Overweight, Obesity, and Pancreatic Cancer
Beyond Risk Alone
- Robert R. McWilliams, MD;
- Gloria M. Petersen, PhD
- Author Affiliations: Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- AGE FACTORS
- BODY MASS INDEX
- HYPERINSULINISM
- INSULIN RESISTANCE
- OBESITY
- OVERWEIGHT
- PANCREATIC NEOPLASMS
Overweight and obesity have well-established public health implications by increasing risk for myriad diseases, most notably cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and also play a role in increasing the risk for multiple types of cancer,1 including pancreatic cancer.2 Obesity has also been reported to be associated with poorer prognosis in multiple cancers,3,4 perhaps most notably breast cancer.5,6,7,8
In this issue of JAMA, Li et al9 have confirmed a well-established association between pancreatic cancer risk and obesity, emphasizing the potential role of early adulthood obesity. Their report includes 2 further observations. First, overweight and obese patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at a younger age than patients with normal weight, and second, overweight and obese patients have lower rates and duration of survival once pancreatic cancer is diagnosed.
The authors used information obtained from a large case-control study …
