Weight loss surgery can prevent uterine cancer

Protects weight loss women from uterine cancer?

Cervical cancer endangers the lives of many women worldwide. Surgery for weight loss could help to significantly reduce the risk of developing uterine cancer in overweight women.

Researchers at the University of Manchester found in their study that weight loss surgery can protect overweight women from uterine cancer. The physicians published the results of their study in the English-language journal "International Journal of Cancer".

Cervical cancer can be caused by obesity

The experts found that the so-called pre-cancerous tissue in the womb of women who received a gastric sleeve or a bypass operation to treat obesity regressed to normal tissue after they lost weight. Doctors have long known that uterine cancer can be caused by obesity, but so far, the effect of losing weight on precancerous changes in the womb has been insufficiently studied.

72 women participated in the study

In seventy-two women with an average BMI of over 50, biopsies were taken during a weight loss operation. In four women uterine cancer was detected, which was then treated by a so-called hysterectomy. Another six patients had atypical endometrial hyperplasia, a precancerous lesion that causes the growth of cells in the womb.

What caused the weight loss?

Of the six women with endometrial hyperplasia, three women no longer had any signs of the disease after losing weight when they were re-examined after eight weeks. The remaining three women were treated with a Mirena spiral, which releases the hormone progesterone in the uterus and reverses precancerous changes. Two of them proved to be free of this disease after six months. Checks over four years showed that the precancerous tissue did not return to these five women. The remaining 62 women had normal uterine tissue at the time of weight loss surgery, but there was a high risk of anomaly. Twelve months after surgery, when the women had lost about 45 kg in weight, the increased risk was no longer evident.

Risk of uterine cancer is greatly increased in obese women

It is well known that highly obese women have a much higher risk of uterine cancer than normal weight women. But the physicians did not expect such a high proportion of women who were being treated for their obesity to suffer from uterine cancer and dangerous signs of cancer without even knowing it. With the help of this study, it is now known that helping obese women lose weight can reverse pre-cancerous tissue changes, researchers point out.

Weight loss surgery can bring several benefits

It is clear that for overweight women, rapid access to weight loss surgery can bring benefits to improving diabetes and the risk of heart disease, and also reduces the risk of uterine cancer, the researchers explain. Losing weight through a diet is probably also effective, but it is known that a diet is very difficult for many people to endure. Often lost weight is also quickly increased again.

Lack of progesterone allows cells to grow in the womb

Overweight postmenopausal women produce estrogen from their fat stores. However, as they no longer ovulate, the absence of progesterone causes the cells to grow in the womb, which then increases the risk of cancer, say the authors. Inflammatory reactions and insulin production also change in overweight women and can cause cells to grow in the womb. Because the reversal of pre-cancerous changes in the womb was so fast, physicians think that the metabolic consequences of weight loss are crucial. (As)