Overweight Children at Higher Risk for Liver Cancer as Adults

More nutritional child abuse.

Childhood body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with the risk for primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in adulthood. This association holds for both boys and girls, increases slightly with age, is consistent across birth years, and is unchanged when other known causes of liver cancer are excluded, Jennifer Baker, PhD, from the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, reported here at the 19th European Congress on Obesity (ECO).

Paralleling the worldwide epidemic in childhood obesity is an increase in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which has now become the most common liver disease in children and which is an early step in the progression of changes in the liver that can lead to liver cancer. Dr. Baker and colleagues therefore investigated whether excess weight from ages 7 to 13 years is associated with liver cancer, and in particular, with HCC, in adults.

Stop the abuse.