The only thing is that there seems to be exceptions to every "rule", so maybe I just happen to have known many exceptions to the rule of obesity being related to cancer (I'm including the treatment and recurrence status, because to me it seems just as pertinent as the original diagnosis and weight status):

Of the women I knew who have died from cancer, the one was thin her entire life - ovarian cancer, recurred after initial treatments, died in her mid-40's.

The other was at most only slightly overweight for a few years as an adult (and as an Amish woman, she'd spent most of her adult life pregnant or nursing, so the little-extra was necessary to sustain the pregnancies and milk production. In her case, it was breast cancer - Died at age 35.


Those who have been diagnosed but survived, and have had no recurrence:

One woman with breast cancer (caught while she was no older than early 30's, treated with no recurrence) was never overweight.

Another woman with breast cancer - caught and treated at age 70, no recurrence - overweight (but not obese), later diagnosed with diabetes.

Another with ovarian cancer - never overweight, caught very early while in her 20's, treated. No recurrence.


Those are the only ones I can think of right at the moment - not because most were exceptions to the rule of obesity being linked to cancer, but because they were the cancer patients I was closest to long enough to know their pre-cancer weight status, and the outcome of their illness.

I could name dozens of women who have been obese or morbidly obese for 4 decades or longer - and yet have made it to their 60's or 70's with no cancer.

I'm not saying the statistics are wrong, but sometimes what you see in real life completely contradicts it.