Dr. Hudis Discusses Obesity as a Modifiable Risk Factor

Clifford A. Hudis, MD, ASCO President-Elect and chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service and attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, discusses obesity as a modifiable risk factor for cancer.

As president-elect, Hudis says that ASCO will begin to tackle the growing problem of obesity and its relationship to several common tumors: breast, high-grade prostate, colon, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and others. There is a substantial amount of evidence that obesity is associated with higher rates of these tumors and worse outcomes.

Hudis says that ASCO has the opportunity to explore the science behind this issue and translate it into action. The theme for his term as president relates to this: the obligation to help society confront obesity as a modifiable risk factor. It is now projected in the U.S. that obesity will replace tobacco as the leading modifiable risk factor for these cancers.