Higher waist-to-hip ratio increases cancer risk in women

Image for representational purpose only

Washington DC: Women should stay fit and maintain a healthy wight because a new stuy has reveals that a higher waist-to-hip ratios increases the risk of ovarian cancer by more than a fifth.

Researchers at the World Cancer Research Fund discovered that even a slight increase in ratio of 0.1 can heighten the danger of uterine cancer by 21 percent.

The findings also found connections between bowel and pancreatic cancer.

Konstantinos Tsilidis from Imperial College London, co-author of the study said, "The results demonstrate how important it is for women to make sure they maintain a healthy weight in order to reduce their cancer risk".

Tsilidis added, "More evidence on the associations between body fat and different cancer types could allow for individuals to be targeted for personalised cancer prevention interventions, such as weight loss programmes".

The women calculate their waist-to-hip ratio by dividing waist size by their hip measurement.

The results indicated that having a ratio greater than 0.85 is an indicator of obesity, while the figure is 0.90 for men, reports the Mail Online.

There were around 7,400 new cases of ovarian cancer in the UK in 2014, that's 20 cases diagnosed every day and 53 percent of ovarian cancer cases in each year are diagnosed in females aged 65 and over.

Dr Panagiota Mitrou, director of research funding at the WCRF said, "We know that extra weight around the waist increases the risk of a range of health conditions, such as diabetes, but this important study is helping us shine a light on how body fat around the waist could affect cancer risk".

Mitrou added, "It is incredibly important that people are aware of the dangers of excess body fat, particularly around their waist".

The findings was published in the British Medical Journal.

(With ANI inputs)