Obesity and Thyroid Cancer

According to a new study published in the Archives of Surgery, obese patients are more likely than normal-weight patients to have advanced, aggressive forms of papillary thyroid cancer. Within this study, researchers found that high body-mass index (BMI) was associated with more advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis. Obese and morbidly obese patients were more likely to have stage three or stage four cancer, and more likely to have the aggressive forms of the disease. In fact, obese and morbidly obese patients were significantly more likely than thinner patients to have stage three or four disease at diagnosis.