What does a combination of metabolic risk factors and obesity reveal about cancer risk? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Breast cancer, colorectal cancer, liver cancer – these are just a few of the cancers known to be associated with obesity. Now a new study adds metabolic risk factors to the profile. Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson at Johns Hopkins says it all adds up to markedly increased cancer risk.

Nelson: They calculated a metabolic score based on blood pressure, plasma glucose, triglyceride level, the cholesterol level wasn't helpful. And they used that as an attempt to describe healthy obesity versus unhealthy obesity. Obesity they defined as a body mass index greater than 30. What they basically found is that 35% of the folks were obese, 7% they felt were metabolically unhealthy and obese. The metabolically unhealthy and obese people had a substantially increased risk for the obesity related cancers.       :34

Nelson urges those who are obese to keep up with cancer screenings. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.