New data link body mass index (BMI) with the risk of lung cancer in nonsmoking adults. Scientists from Yale University School of Medicine and a multi-center team analyzed data from a population-based study conducted in New York State from 1982 to 1985. Subjects included in the study had not smoked more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime (never smokers) or had not smoked more than 100 cigarettes during the 10 years before the study (former smokers).
The researchers collected data on the height and weight of 412 subjects. A positive relation was found between BMI and lung cancer risk for both never smokers and former smokers. Those individuals with the highest BMI (BMI >30.8) had more than twice the odds of having lung cancer compared with those with the lowest BMI (BMI 21.3 or less).
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