(HealthNewsDigest.com) – No one likes the C-word. I’m talking about cancer, not coronavirus, but no one likes that either. However, we must talk about the cancer elephant in the room that no one seems to want to acknowledge.
What would you say if I told you there was a cure for cancer but there were 24 million cancer patients suffering and declining in health who were not seeking this treatment? That would be shocking. A complete head-scratcher. Yet, that’s what’s happening in America—and we need to talk about it.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) reports that there are over a dozen different types of cancer that can be associated with obesity. They include ovarian, kidney, pancreatic, breast, liver, and colorectal cancer. Additionally, studies show that the mortality rate of cancer may be up to 62% higher for patients with obesity.
Surgical Intervention to Improve Health
So, while we may not be able to cure all cancer today, we can effectively cure obesity and therefore many cancers in an astonishingly large population. Weight-loss surgery can be the most effective method of weight loss, reducing or eliminating the risk of cancer and other dangerous health conditions.
Many obese patients have tried to lose weight and keep it off through diet and exercise—with little success. In fact, if a patient’s body mass index (BMI) is over 35, their chances of maintaining a normal body weight long-term is under 1%.
That’s where weight-loss surgery (bariatric surgery) can help.
Approximately 90% of bariatric surgery patients lose 50% of their excess body weight and keep it off long-term. Healthy lifestyle changes coupled with weight-loss surgery produce the best results.
Types of Weight-Loss Surgery
There are several different types of weight-loss surgery. Let’s look at three common ones—laparoscopic adjustable gastric band, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass.
Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band
This type of weight-loss surgery involves a simple, safe, minimally invasive procedure that can be done in an outpatient setting and is mostly covered by insurance. The laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (also known as Lap-Band®) seems almost too good to be true, but it’s not. And what’s perhaps even more surprising is that it’s not new. It has been performed over 1,000,000 times since 1993 worldwide. And there are at least 23 million people in the U.S. right now who could benefit from it.
Since it can be hard to lose excess weight when you’re constantly hungry, the Lap-Band limits how much food patients can eat at one time. During surgery, an adjustable gastric band is placed around the stomach—like a belt (“gastric banding”). This creates a pouch that acts as a smaller stomach. The gastric band limits how much food patients can eat at once, helping them feel full sooner and stay full longer.
As patients’ overall caloric intake decreases, their weight gradually does too. In fact, laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding resulted in 46% of excess weight lost one year after the procedure. And one study showed that patients kept 60% of their excess body weight off on average after five years of having the procedure.
Let’s look closer at why laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding can be an attractive option for severely obese patients when compared to other types of weight-loss surgery.
Key Benefits of Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding
|
Type |
Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (e.g., Lap-Band®) |
Gastric Bypass |
Sleeve Gastrectomy |
|
Degree of invasiveness |
Least invasive (same-day discharge possible)
Does not alter anatomy |
Requires hospital stay
Reduces stomach size and reroutes digestive tract |
Requires hospital stay (with quicker recovery than gastric bypass)
Removes a large portion of stomach |
|
Risk of postoperative complications |
Lowest rate of postoperative complications |
Highest risk of complications due to two-step surgery |
Lower risk of complications due to one-step procedure |
|
Mortality risk |
Lowest mortality rate |
Higher mortality risk than sleeve gastrectomy or laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding |
Lower mortality risk than gastric bypass but higher than laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding |
|
Risk of vitamin/mineral deficiencies |
Lowest risk of vitamin/mineral deficiencies |
Potential long-term vitamin/mineral deficiencies especially deficits in vitamin B12, iron, calcium, and folate |
Fewer issues with absorbing nutrients and vitamins (compared to gastric bypass) |
|
Adjustable |
Adjustable |
Can’t be adjusted |
Can’t be adjusted |
|
Reversible |
Reversible |
Difficult, but can be reversed |
Can’t be reversed |
|
Cost |
Least expensive option |
Similar to sleeve gastrectomy |
Similar to gastric bypass |
Sleeve Gastrectomy and Gastric Bypass
During sleeve gastrectomy surgery, a large part (85%) of the stomach is removed, leaving a banana-like pouch. This pouch can’t hold much food and produces less ghrelin, the “hunger hormone” that signals your brain to eat. This, in turn, may lessen your desire to eat. Significant long-term weight loss is a key benefit of sleeve gastrectomy.
Like sleeve gastrectomy, gastric bypass surgery also tries to shrink the size of the stomach by converting the stomach into a small walnut-sized pouch. As a result, the patient will feel full with less food after surgery. But an additional step involves re-routing (or “bypassing”) part of the patient’s digestive system so less food and calories are absorbed.
What kind of weight-loss surgery to get depends on individual factors, such as weight, medical history, health conditions, and patient expectations. Patients can take charge of their health by asking their doctor for more information about their weight-loss surgery options.
Health Benefits of Weight-Loss Surgery
Besides treating obesity, weight-loss surgery can reduce your cancer risk and improve life-threatening health problems related to obesity.
In one U.S. study published in the Annals of Surgery, researchers found a significantly lower risk for obesity-related cancers among patients who had weight-loss surgery. Specifically, the large multicenter cohort study included patients who underwent gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, or laparoscopic adjustable band surgery. They were matched with severely obese individuals who didn’t have weight-loss surgery.
Researchers found that patients who had bariatric surgery had a 33% lower risk of developing any cancer during follow-up compared with the nonsurgical subjects. The results were even stronger with obesity-related cancers, such as postmenopausal breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
Weight-loss surgery not only cuts cancer risk but can also lower the risk of other life-threatening weight-related conditions including:
● Heart disease and stroke
● High blood pressure
● Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
● Sleep apnea
● Type 2 diabetes
Not only that, but obesity by itself is also a recognized disease by the American Medical Association. It’s also often a progressive disease. Numerous clinical studies and medical societies agree that surgical intervention is the most effective treatment option when medications have failed. Yet less than two percent of eligible patients receive this treatment. Our patients deserve better.
Weight-Loss Surgery: Moving Past Myths and Misconceptions
Despite the benefits, physicians are not diagnosing patients and not referring them to specialists who can give them a proven treatment to reduce the risk of so many life-threatening conditions. Patients incorrectly underestimate their level of obesity and think all surgery is dangerous and permanently alters their internal organs. Society has wrongly placed a stigma around surgery to lose weight. But why would you shame someone from receiving a form of treatment to reduce their cancer risk?
Now is the time to not only talk about the C-word but take a new and better form of action against it—together.
——————————
Ahmad Bali, M.D.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Bali has provided compassionate, experienced care for surgical patients. With expertise in a wide variety of surgical specialties including laparoscopic and minimally-invasive procedures, as well as weight-loss surgery using the Lap-Band® System, Dr. Bali’s extensive surgical experience inspires trust and confidence for his patients.
Trained at the prominent Alep University School for Medicine in Aleppo, Syria, Dr. Bali’s multiple internships and residencies have been completed at Ohio, Maryland and a research fellowship in surgery was completed at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Bali has been certified by the West Virginia Board of Medicine since 2002 and American Board of Surgery certified since 2003. He has surgical privileges at Thomas Memorial Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center-General and Memorial Divisions and St. Francis Hospital.
Dr. Bali is licensed to practice in West Virginia, Delaware, Arizona and Pennsylvania.