Obesity-related cancer deaths have soared in the U.S. over the last two decades, rising from 3.73 million to 13.52 million.
That’s according to a study by researchers at Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Hackensack Meridian Health, which was presented last month at ENDO 2025, the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco.
The study analyzed more than 33,000 deaths from obesity-associated cancers between 1999 and 2020, using mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Older adults, females and racial minorities were found to have a higher burden of risk.
Overall, the Midwest had the highest rate of obesity-related cancer deaths and the Northeast had the lowest.
Vermont, Minnesota and Oklahoma had the highest rates, and Utah, Alabama and Virginia had the lowest.
According to the CDC, more than 40% of Americans have obesity, which raises the risk of developing certain cancers as well as other chronic conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and kidney disease.
