Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that keeping weight in check not only reduces the incidence of colon cancer but also increases survival if colon cancer occurs later in life.
Doctors followed more than 1,000 post-menopausal women who developed colon cancer between 1986 and 2005.
They found that those who were obese were 45 percent more likely to die than normal-weight patients.
The study is in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
