Diabetes and obesity may be causing 800,000 cancers around the world, says study

Nearly six per cent of new cancers diagnosed worldwide in 2012 – some 800,000 cases – were caused by diabetes and excess weight, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Among the 12 types of cancer examined, the percentage of cases chalked up to these factors was as high as a third, researchers reported in The Lancet Diabetes&Endocrinology, a leading medical journal. Cancers stemming from diabetes and obesity combined was almost twice as common among women than men, they found.

And of the two cancer-causing agents, being overweight or obese – above 25 on the body-mass index, or BMI – was responsible for twice as many cancers as diabetes.

The conditions, in reality, are often found together, as obesity is itself a leading risk factor for diabetes.

“While obesity has been associated with cancer for some time, the link between diabetes and cancer has only been established quite recently,” said lead author Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, a clinical research fellow at Imperial College London’s Faculty of Medicine.

“Our study shows that diabetes – either on its own or combined with being overweight – is responsible for hundreds of thousands of cancer cases each year across the world.”