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Bigger belly may up smokers' lung cancer risk 

Smokers who carry more weight around their waistlines may be at greater risk of lung cancer, according to a new study.

The finding, along with the fact that lung cancer risk is actually higher among leaner smokers, provides "intriguing" evidence that how a smoker stores fat could play a role in his or her likelihood of developing lung cancer, Dr. Geoffrey C. Kabat of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, told Reuters Health.

Several studies have found that a lower body mass index (BMI) means a higher lung cancer risk among smokers. "Reflex explanations" for the link include the fact that smokers are skinnier than non-smokers, Kabat noted in an interview, as well as the tendency for people to gain weight after they quit smoking. Another proposed mechanism for the relationship is that people lose weight when they develop lung cancer.

But careful analysis of the data doesn't bear out these explanations, Kabat said. To better understand the relationship, he and his colleagues looked at data from the Women's Health Initiative. . . .

The findings, reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, must be confirmed by other investigators, and don't offer any clues on the mechanism behind the relationship, Kabat noted.

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