Blood Cancer: Bariatric surgery reduces the risk of blood cancer, research reveals

Previous studies have linked overweight or obesity to various types of cancer. It has also come to light that obese women have a higher risk of cancer than their male counterparts and that risk can be reduced with the help of weight loss measures, but obesity or weight loss is not related to blood pressure. Very little information or evidence has been presented regarding related cancers.

Recently, a study conducted in this regard has found that people who underwent bariatric surgery to lose weight were found to have less risk of blood cancer. This study has been published in the scientific research journal Lancet Healthy Longevity. Data from the University of Gothenburg and the National Board of Health and Welfare's Cancer Registry were used for this study.

Researchers compared data from 2007 people who had undergone bariatric surgery with the records of 2040 people in an obese control group (who had not undergone bariatric surgery). During the follow-up study period, it was found that 34 people in the surgery group developed blood-related cancers despite losing weight, while 51 people in the control group were found to be suffering from blood-related cancers.

The majority of those diagnosed with cancer had lymphoma. When studied separately, it was found that members of the group who had bariatric surgery had a 55 percent lower risk of lymphoma, while the risk of other types of blood cancer decreased by 40 percent.

Magdalena Taube, associate professor at the Academy of Molecular and Clinical Medicine at the University of Gothenburg and author of this study, said that diabetic (high blood sugar) women benefited more from bariatric surgery. He said that the benefit of surgery is related to the baseline blood glucose level.

Taube said that if women had low blood glucose levels to begin with, they had a lower risk of blood cancer, and higher blood sugar levels had a higher risk of cancer. It is clear from this that blood sugar level is an important factor in the development of cancer.

Researchers analyzed the complex mechanisms of obesity and blood cancer. They also identified genetic factors for chronic inflammation and a type of blood cancer (clonal hematopoiesis). According to him, changes like improvement in metabolism including reduction in inflammation after bariatric surgery can reduce the risk of cancer. These findings indicate that obese women who undergo bariatric surgery may have a significantly reduced risk of blood cancer.