Organ size increases with obesity and correlates with cancer risk
Abstract
Obesity increases significantly cancer risk in various organs. Although this has been recognized for decades, the mechanism through which this happens has never been explained. Here, we show that the volumes of kidneys, pancreas, and liver are strongly correlated (median correlation = 0.625; P-value<10-47) with the body mass index (BMI) of an individual. We also find a significant relationship between the increase in organ volume and the increase in cancer risk (P-value<10-12). These results provide a mechanism explaining why obese individuals have higher cancer risk in several organs: the larger the organ volume the more cells at risk of becoming cancerous. These findings are important for a better understanding of the effects obesity has on cancer risk and, more generally, for the development of better preventive strategies to limit the mortality caused by obesity.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2005.13112,
title = {Organ size increases with obesity and correlates with cancer risk},
author = {Haley Grant Yifan Zhang and Lu Li and Yan Wang and Satomi Kawamoto and Sophie Pénisson and Daniel F. Fouladi and Shahab Shayesteh and Alejandra Blanco and Saeed Ghandili and Eva Zinreich and Jefferson S. Graves and Seyoun Park and Scott Kern and Jody Hooper and Alan L. Yuille and Elliot K Fishman and Linda Chu and Cristian Tomasetti},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.13112},
year = {2020}
}