Obese people ‘at greater risk of getting cancer’

People who are overweight or obese are at greater risk of developing cancer, according to a major new study.

Just adding a few pounds of extra weight can raise a person’s risk of developing 10 common cancers.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine gathered data on 5.2m people in the UK, of which nearly 170,000 developed cancer, and found that a person’s Body Mass Index, a measure of body fat, was linked to 17 out of 22 cancers.