Abstract CN20
Background
Obesity is a growing concern in the modern world and has now been recognised as the second most common risk factor for developing 13 types of cancers. Morbidity obesity is associated with life threating conditions, in such severe cases the treatment approach to weight loss is bariatric surgery following the strict guidelines in the UK.This literature review's aim is to assess clinical evidence on the effectiveness of bariatric surgery for reducing the risk of cancer in those who are obese.
Methods
Ten population-based cohort studies were analysed using criterion to provide evidence to the objective. The comparison is between obese patients undergone bariatric surgery and control group offered conservative treatment – behaviour modification therapy, lifestyle interventions or no treatment. Criteria included outcome measurements as relative risk of cancer (%) or the incidence of cancer (number of patients in each group). Exclusion criteria included foreign language papers, small sized population studies and patients with cancer history.
Results
Overall risk of developing cancer is significantly lower in patients who have undergone bariatric surgery compared to control patients. Obesity related cancers such as breast prostate, endometrium, kidney and oesophageal were significantly decreased in bariatric surgery patients compared to control group. Weight loss following bariatric surgery has been linked to reducing cancer in post-menopausal women. Mixed results were found on the association of colorectal cancer incidence in obese patients undergone bariatric surgery.
Conclusions
Bariatric surgery has decreased overall incidence of cancer, especially obesity-related cancer in obese patients. Women are more beneficial of surgery than men especially in terms of reducing hormone-related cancers (breast). Further investigations are required to understand the risk of colorectal cancer in patients undergone different types of bariatric surgery. Lastly, it would be recommended to keep a continuous follow-up to identify life-long incidence for cancer in post-surgery patients as various cancers take years to develop.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Annie Anderson (Teaching and Research) Population Health and Genomics, School of Medicine.
Legal entity responsible for the study
N. Sharma.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
The author has declared no conflicts of interest.