OBESITY AND LUNG CANCER (INVESTIGATING THE RELATIONSHIP)

Abstract

Obesity is a global issue, and it leads to various health comorbidities like cardiovascular disease, diabetes type II and certain cancers. The relationship between obesity and cancer, specifically the lung cancer has been studied by many researchers, and they have revealed a positive association of lung cancer with obese individuals, but the mechanism is still not completely understood. Higher BMI which usually falls between 25 to 34.9 kg/m2 is found to reduce the rate of mortality in lung cancer patients. It has been found that in obese individual the p53 tumor suppressor gene is highly upregulated which play a critical role in decreasing the risk of lung cancer. Different studies have suggested that lung cancer has different progression rates depending on smokers and nonsmokers, and the size of the waist including the waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and the measures of overall obesity in the body, is associated with increased in risk of lung cancer regardless of BMI. This review unveils the major relation between obesity with lung cancer.