Obesity increases risk of ovarian cancer.
 An extensive study in the United States shows that obese females may present an increased risk of suffering ovarian cancer comparing to women with less body weight.
Ovarian cancer is a considerably fatal form of cancer, since in early stage it gives not typical symptoms or it is entirely asymptomatic, making in time diagnosis difficult.
The new study included at least 94,000 women between 50 and 71 years of age and they were monitored for more than 7 years. The conclusion is that there is a possible link between obesity and ovarian cancer in women who hadn’t had any hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in menopause. In fact, earlier studies have shown that HRT decreases the risk of ovarian cancer.
In women who had never been under HRT, obese individuals presented 83% elevated risk, compared to others of normal body weight.
The data, presented in the journal "Cancer", indicate that obesity might be a controllable risk factor of ovarian cancer.
Dr. Michael F. Leitzmann, a top researcher the University in Regensburg, Germany and the National Cancer Institute of Bethesda, Maryland, US, mentioned that now there is one more reason for women to maintain healthy body weight.
"Our data suggest that maintaining a healthy weight is associated with a reduction in the risk of developing ovarian cancer," Dr. Leitzmann told Reuters Health.
It is not very clear why obesity can help in occurrence of ovarian cancer. According to Dr. Leitzmann and his team, this might be related to the estrogens level that are affected by the excessive body fat. The scientists believe the fact that the HRT reduces the risk of ovarian cancer advocates the above theory.
A study has also given strong evidence that obesity at the age of eighteen is related to higher ovarian cancer risk at a later stage. In fact, this relationship seems to be stronger than the one that exists between later-age obesity and risk of ovarian cancer.
According to the researchers, the ovarian cancer risk is far higher in people being obese during late adolescence or early adulthood, compared to others who get obese at a later period of their life.
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