FRIDAY, June 20, (News Locale) - Obese individuals who opt to get rid of the flab through bariatric or weight loss surgery can reduce their risk of developing cancer, two new studies out of Canada and Brazil are indicating. 

Researchers from McGill University in Montreal reported people who underwent weight loss surgery were significantly able to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer and colon cancer. The study involved 1,035 morbidly obese patients who had bariatric surgery. These patients were followed for five years.

Some 5,746 patients who were similarly obese, but did not have surgery served as a control group. The researchers found bariatric surgery decreased the risk of patients developing cancer by up to 80 percent. A majority of the patients in this group underwent gastric bypass surgery. This is a procedure that creates a smaller stomach and allows food to bypass part of the small intestine.

Diagnosis for breast cancer in the obesity surgery group was 85 percent lower and that of colon cancer 70 percent lower as compared to the non-bariatric surgery group. Furthermore rates of skin cancer, uterine cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma were also lower in the surgery group.

The preliminary results of the surgery were presented to the 25th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery by Dr Nicolas Christou of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

The Brazilian study involved 20 women and 8 men who were morbidly obese. Dr Alfredo Halpern, of the University of Sao Paulo, and colleagues measured the level of natural killer cells in the blood samples of the patients before and after weight loss surgery.

They also looked at the levels of interferon-gamma and interleukins 2, 12 and 18. All patients lost up to 78.5 pounds within six months after bariatric surgery. They found that although the percentage of natural killer cells did not increase after surgery, these cells were 79 percent more active indicating enhanced ability to fight cancer.

The details of the study were presented at The Endocrine Society's 90th Annual Meeting.

A large review of studies conducted by the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research had found high levels of body fat were in increasing the risk of six types of common cancer including breast cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, esophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer and endometrial cancer.

One of the most surprising findings of the report was excess weight caused cancer even though the individual was not overweight. So the above studies make sense in finding that obesity surgery to drastically reduce weight may in fact cut the risk of cancer.

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