Obesity may keep some women from getting screened for breast, cervical cancer

Breast, cervical and colorectal cancers accounted for 326,290 new cancers cases and 69,850 cancers deaths in 2007 among women in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. The percentage of American women who are overweight or obese has been increasing steadily in recent decades. Between 1976 and 2004, the percentage of overweight women rose from 39 percent to 57 percent in white women, and from 63 percent to 80 percent among black women. According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, 20 percent of cancer deaths in the U.S. in 2000 were attributable to obesity.

“Our review doesn’t tell us why larger women are not getting screened as frequently for these cancers,” Cohen said. “It only reveals the trend. We think this pattern should be studied more thoroughly. And in the meantime, some additional effort should be made to reach women at increased risk of cancer because of their body size and encourage them to get screenings that could save their lives.”

In addition to Cohen, the review was written by Andrew Olshan, Ph.D., chair of the UNC epidemiology department, adjunct research professor in the UNC School of Medicine’s department of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery, and program leader for cancer epidemiology in the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; Rachel T. Palmieri, Sarah J. Nyante, Daniel O. Koralek, Sangmi Kim, Ph.D.and Patrick Bradshaw. The review was developed as the course project in Dr. Olshan's advanced cancer epidemiology class.

The review was supported in part by grants from the National Cancer Institute.

The study is available at: http://www.interscience.wiley.com

Note: Cohen can be reached at .

School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, (919) 966-7467,

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