Submitted by Dr.Kattlove’s Cancer Blog

The other day, newspapers carried the story about James Levine having surgery for kidney cancer. Mr. Levine is the highly regarded conductor of both the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as well as the Boston Symphony. He is also fat. I have never seen him in person, but on the tube, he looks pretty rotund.

At one time his rotundity would have startled people because it would have been so unusual. Not now. Mr. Levine looks like a lot of Americans (except for his huge mane of curly hair).

Fortunately, Mr. Levine’s cancer seems to have been caught early and was quite small. This almost certainly assures that he will survive his disease and be back on the podium in fine fettle in the fall.

The U.S. and other “developed” countries have seen the rate of kidney cancer double in the last 30 years. While we are seeing a drop in the risk of lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, not true for cancer of the kidney. This year, 54,000 people are expected to be diagnosed with this cancer, which puts it in the top ten of new cancer diagnoses. Fortunately most of these kidney cancers, like Mr. Levine’s are caught at an early stage – perhaps due to all the CAT scans we get these days.

What is causing this near epidemic of kidney cancer? To answer this, all we have to do is look in the mirror. If we look like Mr. Levine, our risk of kidney cancer is double that of those whose body type more closely resemble, for example, Barack Obama’s.

A recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute nailed the relationship between obesity and kidney cancer. Being fat, they found doubles a person’s risk of kidney cancer. And it turns out that the weight gain that caused the most trouble happened before the age of 50. Usually it occurred between the ages of 18 and 50. High blood pressure increased the risk of the cancer, as well.

Why this happens isn’t known. One theory is that the cancer is caused by the obese body’s resistance to insulin – the same reason fat people get diabetes. To overcome this resistance caused by all that fat, the body secretes a lot of insulin. Sometimes this isn’t enough and diabetes ensues. But along with the insulin comes another hormone called Insulin Related Growth Factor. This molecule, as its name implies, causes cells to grow and has been vaguely linked to several cancers. Not a good enough explanation according to most scientists so the search for the link between obesity and cancer (lots of cancers other than kidney cancer are also related to obesity) continues.

But regardless of the mechanism, we know how to cut our risk for this cancer – so eat well but less.

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