While issues related to blood pressure and sugar are generally linked to obesity, cancer is certainly not welcome in the picture. But it seems to have already invaded the terrain with a Cancer Research UK report suggesting that obesity has brought kidney cancer cases on a record high.
According to the statistics, the whopping 135% increase in kidney cancer incidences over the past 35 years could be related to obesity. While in 1975, it was considered the 14th most common cancer in the UK, it presently stands as the eighth most common cancer in the same place.
“Over the last 10 years, Cancer Research UK has helped to develop new drugs which destroy the blood supply to the kidney cancers. These drugs control the disease in most patients but do not cure it,†cited Professor Tim Eisen, a Cancer Research UK kidney cancer expert, based at the University of Cambridge.
The team has urged individuals to maintain a healthy body weight and control smoking to avert the disease. Importantly, blood expelled in the urine is often an early manifestation of the disease and must be reported to a physician on an immediate basis.
The idea is to identify the cancer as soon as possible and pave the path to efficient treatment of the same. As per the observations, the use of advanced imaging techniques has helped detect more kidney tumors. However, the incidence of advanced kidney cancer cases has also experienced an upswing in recent days.
Of all the risk factors for kidney cancer, smoking is regarded as the most influential, after which it is obesity. The latter may increase the risk for this condition by almost 70%. About 22% of cases in men and women are apparently related to their high body weights. The basic explanation for this is that overweight people generate certain hormones in their bodies that could cause cancers including kidney tumors.