Wake Up Call For India: Study Links Diabetes, High BMI to Cancer

Lancet report rings alarm bells for India by linking high BMI and diabetes to cancer.

A new Lancet study has found that diabetes and high BMI (above 25 kg/m2) were the cause of 5.6 percent of the new cancer cases in 2012.

Published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, the study found that of the new cases in 18 kinds of cancer, 5,44,300 were attributable to high BMI, equivalent to 3.9 percent of all cancers — nearly double that of the 2,80,100 cases attributable to diabetes (2 percent).

The study analysed 7,92,600 cases reported from 175 countries around the world.

These figures are alarming for India already the Diabetes capital of the world and is battling the double burden of obesity and malnutrition.

Cancers linked to diabetes and high BMI included:

• Liver Cancer: 24.5 percent of the 7.66 lakh new cases
• Endometrial Cancer: 38.4 percent of the 3.17 lakh new cases