Maintaining a healthy weight may reduce the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, according to researchers who evaluated previously collected data from more than 131,000 patients ages 55 to 74 enrolled in the multicenter Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial between 1993 and 2001.

Fat cells can trigger an inflammatory response and promote immune cell dysfunction, which can lead to certain cancers.

The researchers used age 20 as their definition of early adulthood, 50 for middle age, and 55 or older as later adulthood. They also noted how often the participants took aspirin or aspirin-containing products.

“Our study suggests that being overweight or obese during several phases of life can increase a person’s risk for gastrointestinal cancers in later adulthood,” said study lead author Holli Loomans-Kropp, a cancer control researcher and epidemiologist with Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“We believe that the results of this study highlight the need to better understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer prevention agents as well as who may or may not benefit from their use. The field of precision prevention is still relatively new, but is an exciting avenue for cancer prevention research.”