Obesity Linked to Ovarian Cancer

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Overall, obese women -- those with a body mass index (BMI) or 30 or above -- had a 26 percent higher chance of developing ovarian cancer than women of normal weight, a figure the researchers said was not statistically significant.

However, the picture was somewhat different among subgroups of women. Obese women who had never used hormone therapy had an 80 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, compared with their normal-weight counterparts. There appeared to be no relationship between BMI and ovarian cancer among women who had used hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms.

Obese women without a family history of the disease had a 36 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer, although there was no heightened risk in obese women who did have a family history.

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According to the study authors, the findings indicate that obesity may increase ovarian cancer risk through hormonal effects. Specifically, excess fat increases production of estrogen, which may spur the growth of ovarian cancer.

But the picture is likely much more complicated than that, said Dr. Michael A. Bookman, vice president for ambulatory care and clinical research at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

Overall, obese women in the study did not have a notably higher risk for ovarian cancer. The increased risk was only seen in a subgroup of the women, he noted.

"When you do a subset analysis, there's always a risk," Bookman said. "They wave their hands and think maybe this is because estrogen is bad for you, but there are a lot of other things obesity does than create endogenous estrogen, like other growth factors.

"It's interesting that, in women who were exposed to menopausal hormones, there was some evidence that [hormones] actually protected them," he added. "It's, at best, a modest effect and not nearly as strong as the data with endometrial cancer. I'm not a fan of obesity, but I think, in this particular analysis, it's a pretty modest effect. It would be much more convincing if it were significant for the entire population."

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