Weight management

Suggested

2 studies · 1 recommendation

Last updated: February 25, 2026

Suggested2 studies

Maintaining healthy body weight reduces thyroid cancer risk across all ages

Excess body fatness directly increases thyroid cancer risk. An IARC consensus statement, drawing on multiple cohort and case-control studies, classified thyroid cancer among cancers with sufficient evidence linking excess body fat to elevated risk, reporting a relative risk of 1.1 (95% CI, 1.0–1.1) for the highest BMI category versus normal weight. A separate systematic review of 30 studies (screened from 658 articles, 2004–2014) identified thyroid cancer as having one of the strongest and most consistent positive associations with childhood and adolescent obesity, independent of gender. The association spans the full lifespan — from childhood obesity through adult weight gain — underscoring that weight management at any age contributes to lower thyroid cancer risk. With global obesity rates having increased six-fold since 1975 (reaching 640 million obese adults by 2014), proactive weight control represents a modifiable protective factor.

Evidence

Body fatness and cancer - viewpoint of the IARC working group

Authors: Anderson, Annie S., Baker, Jennifer L., Bianchini, Franca, Breda, João, Byers, Tim, Clearly, Margot P., Colditz, Graham, Di Cesare, Mariachiara, Gapstur, Susan M., Grosse, Yann, Gunter, Marc, Herbert, Ronald A., Hursting, Stephen D., Kaaks, Rudolf, Lauby-Secretan, Béatrice, Leitzmann, Michael, Ligibel, Jennifer, Loomis, Dana, Renehan, Andrew, Romieu, Isabelle, Scoccianti, Chiara, Shimokawa, Isao, Straif, Kurt, Thompson, Henry J., Ulrich, Cornelia M., Wade, Katlin, Weiderpass, Elisabete

Published: August 24, 2016

The IARC working group newly classified thyroid cancer among sites with sufficient evidence that absence of excess body fatness lowers cancer risk. Based on several cohort and case-control studies, a positive association was observed between BMI and thyroid cancer risk, with a relative risk of 1.1 (95% CI, 1.0–1.1) for the highest BMI category versus normal BMI. This was one of eight cancer types newly added since the 2002 IARC evaluation. The global context includes an estimated 640 million obese adults in 2014, a six-fold increase since 1975, and 110 million obese children and adolescents in 2013, a two-fold increase since 1980, with age-standardized obesity prevalence of 10.8% among men and 14.9% among women.

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A systematic review of the link between childhood obesity and adult cancers

Authors: Schumacher, Makaila A.

Published: March 30, 2016

Across a systematic review of 30 peer-reviewed studies selected from 658 screened articles in PubMed and CINAHL (published 2004–2014), strong evidence supported a positive association between childhood and adolescent obesity and thyroid cancer in both males and females. Alongside non-Hodgkin lymphoma, thyroid cancer showed the most consistent gender-independent positive association with childhood obesity among all cancer types examined in the review.

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