Is Overweight or Obese Status an Independent Prognostic Factor in Various Solid Organ Cancers

While obesity has been found to be a risk factor for several types of cancer, its use as a prognostic tool is unclear. The authors have reviewed literature interrogating the link between overweight status and obesity and cancer prognosis for five distinct solid organ malignancies: colon, breast, ovarian, lung, and renal. There appears to be a positive correlation between overnutrition and poor prognosis in breast and colon cancer. Similarly, there may well be a survival advantage for overweight or obese patients with newly diagnosed renal cell carcinoma and smoking-associated lung cancer. The relationship between ovarian cancer and obesity is less clear, as is the relationship between lung cancer in never/scant-smokers and obesity.