New research published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, have quantified the number of diabetes and obesity-related cancers and projects a steep rise in diagnosed cases.

The study conducted by researchers from several institutions worldwide including Imperial College London, United Kingdom and the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) Lyon, France establishes that cancers related to diabetes and obesity, have an increasingly high incidence.

The team noticed that 5.6 percent of all incident cancers worldwide in 2012 were linked to combined effects of pre-existing diabetes and a high body mass index (a BMI over 25 kg/m²) as independent risk factors. Of this total, 3.9% of cases were attributable to high BMI and 2% of the cases to diabetes. With the rise in the prevalence of these risk factors in the coming years, the proportion of cancers related to diabetes and high BMI is expected to increase even further. The study estimates that with the projected prevalence of diabetes and high BMI for 2025 compared with prevalence in 2002, the proportion of related cancers might increase by more than 30% in women and by 20% in men.

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