Body weight is directly associated with mortality from cancer, according to a study carried out in the U.S. Researchers at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta found that increased body weight is not only related to specific cancers but also to death rates for all cancers combined. The team examined a population of more than 900,000 U.S. adults (around half men and half women) who were free of cancer at enrollment in 1982, and looked at the relation between body mass index at baseline and the risk of death from all cancers and from cancers at individual sites, while controlling for other risk factors. In the 16 years of follow-up there were 57,145 deaths from cancer. The heaviest members of the cohort (those with a body-mass index of at least 40) had death rates from all cancers combined that were 52% higher for men and 62% higher for women when compared to people of normal weight.

—New England Journal of Medicine, April;348:1625-1638.