Research

Hormonal

Bariatric surgery significantly reduces the overall incidence of cancer, obesity-related cancers, and cancer-associated mortality in patients with morbid obesity compared to conventional treatment.

For individuals with morbid obesity, bariatric surgery is a highly effective intervention for reducing the risk of developing various cancers, particularly obesity-related types like breast, colorectal, and endometrial cancer, as well as reducing cancer mortality. This benefit is attributed to sustained weight loss and metabolic improvements that are difficult to achieve through lifestyle changes alone.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The meta-analysis suggested bariatric surgery was associated with a reduced overall incidence of cancer (RR 0.62, 95% CI 0.46–0.84, p < 0.002), obesity-related cancer (RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.39–0.90, p = 0.01) and cancer-associated mortality (RR 0.51, 95% CI 0.42–0.62, p < 0.00001).
Robert B. Wilson et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2023

Why this rating

Based on a systematic review and meta-analysis of 32 studies involving over 2 million patients, though observational studies carry inherent bias.

Source

Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Bariatric Surgery on Future Cancer Risk

Robert B. Wilson et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2023

DOI 10.3390/ijms24076192

Meta-analysis · 32 studiesCited 121×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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