Lose weight to cut the risk of developing cancer.

Everyone must also aim to be as thin as possible without becoming underweight. People with a Body Mass Index (BMI), a calculation which takes into account height and weight, of between 18.5 and 25, are deemed to be within a "healthy" weight range.
But the study says their risk increases as they head towards the 25 mark, and that everyone should try to be as close to the lower end as possible.

And it states that there is a direct relation between the extent of excessive weight and the likelihood of falling victim to cancer. The survey team reviewed 500,000 published papers from around the world, selecting the 7,000 most relevant and distilling their findings on cancer into a single report. Survey chair Professor Sir Michael Marmot, professor of epidemiology and public health at University College London, said he was surprised at the strength of the link it established between weight and cancer risk.

And he said there was a "very clear message" from its findings for the general population: "Firstly, as you enter adulthood, don't put on weight. Secondly, if you are already overweight, it is likely that losing weight would lower your risk."

Prof Marmot told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "One of the surprises to me - as a relative non-cancer expert - is the importance of obesity and overweight. "We have known about obesity and overweight in relation to cardio-vascular disease and diabetes. The idea that it is strongly linked to cancer, I think, is relatively new."

The direct link between increased weight and increased cancer risk was even stronger than that linking cigarettes with cancer, he suggested.

Read more at the BBC news website http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7069914.stm