A recent report published in the British Journal of Cancer, has reveled the fact that obese women, who carry extra weight around their stomach, are 70 per cent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer

The research which was carried out by Juhua Luo of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and colleagues followed more than 138,000 menopausal women in the United States for more than seven years to investigate the links between obesity and pancreatic cancer. The part of this large study was known as Women’s Health Initiative.

The researchers found that 251 women developed pancreatic cancer, and of these, 78 had the highest waist-to-hip ratios. The researchers when peeped in further risk factors found that the disease was 70 percent more than the 34 women with the lowest excess stomach weight who suffered the disease.

The high level of obesity in women directly affects their insulin level, thus leading to high risk of developing the disease. Obesity is also directly linked to diabetes. From time to time, studies have revealed that obesity might raise risk to several kinds of cancer including breast and colon and also some major heart diseases.

In a statement given by Juhua Luo, she said, “We found that the risk of developing pancreatic cancer was significantly raised in obese postmenopausal women who carry most of their excess weight around the stomach. Obesity is a growing and largely preventable problem, so it's important that women are aware of this major increase in risk.”

Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease and out of all the cancers, it is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths across the world. The researchers warned the women who are overweight or obese, since they are prone to the disease.