The new projections stem from a review of published studies, updates to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report from 2002, and data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which includes 116,686 women, Dr Graham Colditz explained at a press briefing at the American Association for Cancer Research's international conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research underway in Baltimore.
By applying the current US levels of overweight and obesity, Colditz from the Harvard School of Public Health estimated that 14 percent of colon cancers - over 14,000 cases - would be avoided if no one was overweight or obese.
Likewise, if no one was overweight or obese, "we would avoid 11 percent of breast cancer - over 18,000 cases; 49 percent of endometrial cancer, almost 20,000 cases; 31 percent of kidney cancer, over 11,000 cases; 39 percent of esophageal cancer, 5,500 cases; 14 percent of pancreas cancers, 4,500 cases; 20 percent of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, over 11,000 cases; and for multiple myeloma 17 percent of cases," Colditz told reporters.