Researchers discovered bariatric surgery resulting in dramatic weight loss could reduce overweight women's risk of developing uterine cancer by as much as 81 percent.
The researchers looked at a cohort study encompassing 7,431,858 patients, they found bariatric surgery could reduce a woman's risk of uterine cancer by between 71 and 81 percent depending on if a normal weight is maintained after the surgery, a University of California, San Diego Health Sciences news release reported.
Out of the study participants 103,797 had received bariatric surgery and 44,345 were diagnosed with a uterine malignancy.
"Estimating from various studies that looked at increasing BMI and endometrial cancer risk, a woman with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 would have approximately eight times greater risk of endometrial cancer than someone with a BMI of 25," first author Kristy Ward, MD, the senior gynecologic oncology fellow in the Department of Reproductive Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine, said in the news release. "This risk likely continues to go up as BMI goes up."
Bariatric surgery reduces the size of the stomach using a "gastric band," removing part of the stomach itself, or rerouting the small intestine to a smaller "stomach pouch." This surgery is usually only approved as a last resort for those who are extremely obese and cannot lose weight or for individuals with certain health risk factors such as heart disease or diabetes.
In the past obesity has been lined to endometrial cancer; excessive fat tissue can raise levels of circulating estrogen which can lead to tumor creation and metastasis.
Bariatric surgery has been shown to reduce the impacts of these elevated hormone levels as well as reducing inflammation and insulin resistance.
"The obesity epidemic is a complicated problem," she said. "Further work is needed to define the role of bariatric surgery in cancer care and prevention, but we know that women with endometrial cancer are more likely to die of cardiovascular causes than they are of endometrial cancer. It's clear that patients who are overweight and obese should be counseled about weight loss, and referral to a bariatric program should be considered in patients who meet criteria," Ward said.
