Body Weight and Cancer – Self-paced module – IARC-ESMO Cancer Prevention Learning and Capacity-Building Initiative

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This resource is now hosted on the IARC Learning space of the new WHO Academy learning platform. Visit the platform here: https://whoacademy.org/partners/IARC/11-iarc-esmo-learning-and-capacity-building-initiative-for-cancer-prevention

Lectures

Questions and answers

Quiz

Certificate of completion

Test your knowledge!

TRUE OR FALSE?

The level of visceral fat (fat around human organs), which is associated with cancer risk, is more sensitive to physical activity and to excess caloric intake compared with subcutaneous fat.

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WATCH THE VIDEO EXCERPT!

Date of the recording: 14 December 2020

Webinar organized with the support of and in collaboration with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

INTRODUCTION BY

Dr Marc Gunter

Head of the Section of Nutrition and Metabolism

International Agency for Research on Cancer, France

About Dr Marc Gunter

EVIDENCE LINKING OBESITY AND CANCER

Dr Edward L. Giovannucci

Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA

Presentation summary

Excess body weight has been linked to a higher risk of 13 types of cancer. About 8% of all cancers in the USA have been attributed to having a body mass index (BMI) of more than 25 kg/ m2 (overweight and obese). In non-smokers, approximately 20% of cancers are attributable to excess adiposity. In the USA, most obesity-related cancers have been increasing in people younger than 50 years, alongside increasing rates of obesity. Mechanisms that underlie this include increases in estrogens, insulin and related growth-promoting hormones, and inflammation. Improved diet, more physical activity, and maintaining a normal body weight can help reduce the burden of cancer worldwide.

Short biography

Dr Edward L. Giovannucci graduated from Harvard University in 1980 and received a medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984. He did his residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Connecticut, and then completed a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH) in 1992. Currently, he is a Professor in the Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology at HSPH. Over the past several decades, Dr Giovannucci’s work has been based largely in the Nurses’ Health Study I u0026amp; II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. His research focuses on how nutritional, environmental, and lifestyle factors relate to various malignancies, especially those of the colorectum, other gastrointestinal cancers, and prostate cancer. A specific interest has been understanding etiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between nutritional factors and cancer. He serves on the Expert Panel for the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute of Cancer Research.

STRATEGIES TO SUPPORT CHANGES IN BODY SIZE – INDIVIDUAL AND PUBLIC HEALTH PERSPECTIVES

Dr Annie S. Anderson

Professor of Public Health Nutrition

University of Dundee, Scotland

Presentation summary

Actions at the policy level potentially offer equitable approaches to assist the population to achieve desirable changes in weight-related behaviours. There are many parallels with tobacco control that offer an evidence-based route for action related to reduced caloric consumption. While we wait for governments to implement such policies, globally more than 1.9 billion adults are overweight or living with obesity and increased cancer risk. Weight management support, beyond education and awareness-raising, is limited and deserves further investment both in practice and in research.

Short biography

Professor Annie S. Anderson was trained in nutrition, and after two years of clinical dietetic practice in Cambridge moved to an academic career. After a PhD at the University of Aberdeen and research posts at the University of Glasgow and the MRC Medical Sociology Unit, she was appointed to a Professorial position in the University of Dundee in 1996. In 2013, she was elected to Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCP) and in 2020 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE). Her research areas focus on theory-based, behaviourally focused dietary and obesity (population and individual) interventions aimed at chronic disease risk reduction, with a special interest in cancer prevention and survivorship.