The Obesity Paradox in Cancer: a Review

There is a common perception that excess adiposity, commonly approximated by body mass index (BMI), is associated with reduced cancer survival. A number of studies have emerged challenging this by demonstrating that overweight and early obese states are associated with improved survival. This finding is termed the "obesity paradox" and is well recognized in the cardio-metabolic literature but less so in oncology. Here, we summarize the epidemiological findings related to the obesity paradox in cancer. Our review highlights that many observations of the obesity paradox in cancer reflect methodological mechanisms including the crudeness of BMI as an obesity measure, confounding, detection bias, reverse…

• UO
  University of Manchester
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MR/K006665/1, MC_PC_13042