Mayo Clinic Release: Obesity Linked to Higher Five-Year Death Rate After Esophageal Cancer Surgery

ROCHESTER, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Obesity doubles the risk of cancer recurrence and cancer-related death in patients with esophageal cancer who have been treated with surgery, researchers at Mayo Clinic found. Their 778-patient study, which appeared in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that five-year survival in obese patients — those with a body mass index of 30 or higher — with esophageal cancer was 18 percent, compared to 36 percent in patients of normal weight.