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# Obesity, diabetes raise breast cancer risk
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/obesity_diabetes_raise_breast_cancer_risk_0802120642/
- Published: 2012-08-02T19:41:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:05:01.000Z
- Description: In a Uruguayan case-control study of 912 women, those who were both obese and diabetic were more than nine times as likely as women with neither condition to develop breast cancer. A personal history of diabetes alone was tied to 64% higher risk, and 92% higher among postmenopausal women.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Disease, Health News, #vivvo-import

By david Liu PHD

Thursday Aug 2, 2012 ([foodconsumer.org](http://www.foodconsumer.org/)) -- Suffering obesity and or diabetes mellitus type 2 could mean a high risk of developing breast cancer in postmenopausal women, according to a study released recently in Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention.

The study led by A.L. Ronco of Pereira Rossell Women's Hospital in Montevideo, Uruguay and colleagues, showed that women who were obese and diagnosed with diabetes were more than 9 times as likely as those who did not have either medical condition to develop breast cancer.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 220,000 American women each year and the disease and its complications kill nearly 40,000 annually in the US, according to the National Cancer Institute.

According to the authors, obese postmenopausal women are at higher risk of developing breast cancer in particular if they have an android-type pattern of adiposity, which is in turn associated to elevated risks of diabetes mellitus, hypertension and cardiovascular disease. 

The study involved 912 Uruguayan women of ages between 23 to 69 years of whom 367 were newly diagnosed with breast cancer and 545 were age-matched controls who did not have the cancer. The case-control study was conducted between between 2004-2009 at the researchers' Oncology Unit.

For the study, twenty body measurements were taken to calculate body composition and somatotype. Patients were surveyed on socio-demographics, reproductive history, family history of cancer, dietary habits, personal history of diabetes, dislypidemias, hyperuricemia, hypertension and gallbladder stones.

Overall, a personal history of diabetes was associated with 64 percent higher risk for breast cancer and among postmenopausal women, the risk was increased by 92 percent, compared to those who did not have diabetes.

Of postmenopausal women, those who had diabetes, overweight, and dislypidemia were 9.33 times as likely as those who did not have the conditions to develop breast cancer. An increase with a similar magnitude in risk of breast cancer was found in postmenopausal women who had diabetes, overweight, but also had high fat/muscle ratio. 

The researchers concluded "a personal history of diabetes and overweight was strongly associated to BC (breast cancer). The studied sample had a subset of high-risk of BC featured by postmenopausal overweight and diabetic women, who also had a personal history of hypertension and/or dyslipidemia."