“Bariatric surgery lowers cancer risk!” … Or does it? Reporting on an unpublished study.
by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.
You must have seen it by now. It’s been on cable, Yahoo! News and multiple newspaper front pages. … The story, that is.
The study the story’s about, however, is a bit harder to find.
What happened was, Canadian researchers reported a link between weight-loss surgery and decreased cancer risk at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery. Media outlets seemingly picked up the story and ran with it.
My Questions
I can’t find the actual study, so I’m not sure it’s been published yet. Publication means it’s been peer-reviewed and everyone else can also evaluate it for accuracy, flaws and correctness of conclusions.
I would like to see if it included those who gained their weight back and how much. Also, who was in the group to whom they compared the surgery patients–those who didn’t have surgery? (For instance, are there the same amount of smokers in both groups, the same number of males and females, similar ages?)
Good and Bad
Nonetheless, the fact is there have been several past studies showing a decrease in diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure, to name a few, after bariatric surgery. One showed an overall decrease in mortality of 50 percent.
But as in all things, the news is not all good about stomach stapling and the like. For instance:
- There are risks with the surgeries–some serious, some fatal.
- The surgeries are only for certain people–mainly the morbidly obese who have tried diet and exercise without success. (Morbidly obese is defined as a BMI over 40; another definition is twice your ideal body weight).
- You must continue a lifelong pursuit of exercise and a healthy diet after the surgery; it’s not a magic cure.
If you think you’re a candidate, do research, find a good surgeon (click here for the ASMBS’s surgeon finder) and ask plenty of questions. Be sure to talk this over with your primary care provider.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:21 am
As I have said it is always nice to have a reliable resource to reference for the straight facts. Thanks again!
Mark Salinass last blog post..Daily Exercise
June 20th, 2008 at 9:31 am
It’s always good to hear from you Mark. I love your website and blogs as well as your comments.
December 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Regarding Obesity:
One solution beneficial in many cases of morbid obesity if one’s obesity is not eventually controlled or corrected is what is known as gastric bypass surgery. This is a type of bariatric surgery that essentially reduces the volume of the human stomach in order to correct and treat morbid obesity by surgical re-construction of the stomach and small intestine. Morbid obesity is defined as one who has a body mass index of 30 kg/m or greater, and this surgery, along with the three other types of surgery for morbid obesity, should be considered a last resort after all other methods to reduce the patient’s weight have chronically failed. There are three surgical variations of gastric bypass surgery, and one is chosen by the surgeon based on their experience and success from the variation they will utilize. Over 200,000 gastric bypass surgeries are performed each year, and this surgery being performed continues to progress as a suitable option for the morbidly obese. There is evidence that this surgery is particularly beneficial for those obese patients that have non-insulin dependent Diabetes Mellitus as well.
Morbid obesity greatly affects the health of the patient in a very negative way. It has about 10 co-morbidities that can develop if the situation is not corrected. Some if not most of these co-morbidities are life-threatening. So the surgery to correct morbid obesity greatly reduces the co-morbidities associated with this type of obesity problem. Two percent of those who undergo this surgery die as a result from about a half a dozen complications that could occur. However, the surgery reduces the mortality of the patient by 40 percent or so, yet this percentage is debatable due to conflicting clinical studies.
Age of the patient should be taken into consideration, as to whether or not the risks of this surgery outweigh any potential benefits for the patient who may have existing co-morbidities that have already caused physiological damage to the patient. Also what should be determined by the surgeon is the amount of safety, effectiveness, and rationale for a particular patient regarding those patients who are elderly, for example.
If a person or a doctor is considering this type of surgery, there is a website dedicated to bariatric surgery, which is: http://www.asmbs.org,
Dan Abshear