Cancer risk increases in overweight young

Researchers have found that young adults who are overweight significantly increase their risk of dying of cancer in later life.

More than 10,500 students at the University of Glasgow who used the student health service between 1948 and 1968 were monitored in the study, which was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health this week.

It found that up to 1997, a total of 971 men and 138 women had died and, of these, 339 men and 82 women died of cancer. In men, the risk of death from cancer increased by 22 per cent for every additional 5kg (11lbs) of weight. In women the increase was 43 per cent.

There were 261 deaths from cancers not related to smoking. The researchers from Bristol University found that every additional 5kg of weight pushed up the risk of dying from cancers not linked to smoking by 36 per cent in men and by 80 per cent in women.