Obesity may raise risk of ovarian cancer

Obese women may have a higher risk of developing ovarian cancer than their thinner counterparts. Ovarian cancer is a particularly deadly type of cancer because in the initial stages it typically has vague symptoms or none at all, making it difficult to catch early.Researchers from America studied more than 94,000 women aged 50 to 71 years, who were followed for more than 7 years. It was found that obese women were more likely to develop ovarian cancer. But the risk appeared to be confined to those who'd never used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) during menopause. Previous studies have linked hormone use to a reduced risk of ovarian cancer.Among women who'd never used HRT, those who were obese had an 83 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer than normal-weight women did.

The findings suggest that obesity may be one of a few controllable risk factors for ovarian cancer. Maintaining a healthy weight is associated with a reduction in the risk of developing ovarian cancer. It's not entirely clear why obesity may contribute to ovarian cancer, but it may have to do with the effects of excess body fat on a woman's oestrogen levels. The fact that the risk varied according to women's HRT use supports this theory.The study also found a link between obesity at the age of 18 and a higher risk of ovarian cancer later in life - a relationship that was even stronger than the one between later-life obesity and ovarian cancer risk. It's possible that weight in adolescence or young adulthood is even more relevant to ovarian cancer than weight gain later in life.