Wen-Yi Huang

NCI, DCEG, OEEB

PLCO (Learn more about this study)

2006-0321

Jul 1, 2006

Questionnaire Risk Factors and Multiple Disease Outcomes in PLCO

Cohort studies, such as PLCO, provide an opportunity to evaluate a risk factor, or combinations of risk factors, in relation to multiple disease outcomes. This is important for evaluating the overall public health impact of lifestyle and dietary risk factors which can affect multiple organ systems and diseases. Recent epidemiologic studies have taken this approach for study of health risks associated with obesity. A study among 362,552 Swedish men showed that obese men had a significantly increased risk of all cancers combined; risks were most pronounced for esophageal adenocarcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, and cancers of the colon, rectum, and liver1. Among 527,265 U.S. men and women in the National Institutes of Health-AAPR cohort, excess body weight during midlife was associated with an increased risk of death; most notably, among healthy people who had never smoked, risk of death increased by 20 to 40 percent among overweight persons and by two to at least 3 times among obese persons2.