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Obesity as a risk factor in cancer: A national consensus of the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology

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Abstract

In the last few years, many prospective studies have demonstrated a clear association between obesity and cancers of the colon and rectum, breast in post-menopausal women, endometrium, kidney, oesophagus and pancreas. Obesity is also associated with a high risk of recurrence and cancer-related death. The pathophysiology of obesity involves various changes that may be implicated in the relationship between obesity and cancer, such as excess inflammatory cytokines and chronic inflammation, hyperinsulinaemia, insulin resistance, and raised leptin and oestrogens. The Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology have signed a cooperation agreement to work together towards reducing the impact of obesity in cancer. Preventing obesity prevents cancer.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the editorial assistance of Ana Martín of HealthCo (Madrid, Spain) in the production of this manuscript.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that, when writing and revising the text, they did not know the names of the pharmaceutical companies that provided financial support for this project, so this support has not influenced the content of this article.

Ethical statement

The study has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Additional informed consent was obtained from all individual participants for whom identifying information is included in this article.

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Correspondence to A. Goday.

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Goday, A., Barneto, I., García-Almeida, J.M. et al. Obesity as a risk factor in cancer: A national consensus of the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity and the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology. Clin Transl Oncol 17, 763–771 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12094-015-1306-y

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