Well, consider these findings. Studies also indicate that these women are 15 times more likely to get endometrial cancer than are women who are slender. In a 13-year study of 750,000 men and women, American Cancer Society researchers concluded that those people with weights 40 percent higher than average have a 33 to 55 percent greater risk of dying of cancer than those who are trim. The same study found that overweight men are more prone to cancers of the colon and prostate, and overweight women are more susceptible to cancers of the gallbladder, breasts, cervix, endometrium, uterus, and ovaries. It's not clear why weight is so closely allied with cancer risk, but researchers are making some educated guesses.
Some researchers suspect that eating too many calories triggers reproduction of cells.
The more cells your body makes, the greater the chance that one or more will become cancerous, observes Susan Mayne, Ph.D., director of the cancer prevention and control program at the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Mayne and others also believe that excessive body fat increases the production of sex hormones such as estrogen. And since estrogen sparks excessive cell production, it is quite possibly one of the culprits that helps cancer get a foothold. And there's another phenomenon that goes along with high amounts of body fat. When you have a lot of fat, you have less of a protein that binds to sex hormones and deactivates them.