Some 40 Maltese people develop cancer every year due to obesity, the second highest rate in Europe, according to an international study.
The report, published yesterday by acclaimed medical journal The Lancet, found that 4.4 per cent of the 900 cancer cases recorded in Malta every year were the result of a high body mass index.
The Czech Republic has the highest rate in Europe at 5.5 per cent, followed by the UK and Malta.
The study of 184 countries found that weight causes about 481,000 new cancer cases a year globally among adults.
A quarter of all obesity-related cancers are linked to a rising average BMI in the population, making the disease realistically avoidable
Times of Malta yesterday reported that a quarter of deaths on the island were caused by cancer. In fact, 875 people died of cancer in 2011, according to figures released by the National Statistics Office earlier this week.
Like most counties, lung cancer is the leading killer in Malta, responsible for 18 per cent of all cancer deaths.
This is followed by colorectal cancer (12.6 per cent), breast (9.7 per cent), pancreatic (7.3 per cent) and prostate (four per cent).
These figures were supported by The Lancet study.
Its report on cancer survival rates found that 24 per cent of European deaths were caused by cancer.
The research into the association between weight and cancer forms part of a rather new field in oncology but recent studies have linked factors, such as increased levels of insulin among obese people, to the likelihood of tumour development.
Obesity-related cancer, which was spread across several different forms of the condition, would appear to be a greater problem for women than men.
This is mostly because of the high incidence of the disease in the womb and uterus as well as postmenopausal breast cancers: both have a strong link to increased BMI.
In men, excess weight was responsible for two per cent, or 136,000 new cancer cases worldwide – in women it was 5.4 per cent, or 345,000 new cases.
Postmenopausal breast, endometrial and colon cancers were responsible for almost three-quarters of the BMI-related cancer cases affecting women.
In men, colon and kidney cancers accounted for over two-thirds of all obesity-related cancers.
Melina Arnold, who authored the report, estimated that a quarter of all obesity-related cancers were linked to a rising average BMI in the population, making the disease “realistically avoidable”.