Risk For Brain Tumor Meningioma Increases Among Obese Or Overweight Individuals

When a person is overweight or obese their risk for Meningioma, a type of brain tumor increases, says a new research.

"This is an important finding since there are few known risk factors for meningioma and the ones we do know about are not things a person can change," said study author Gundula Behrens from University of Regensburg in Germany.

About Brain Tumor
Brain tumors are the abnormal growth of brain cells that may be benign or metastatic. Brain tumors account for about 2.4% of all the tumor diagnosesandare most challenging due to their critically delicate location.

Meningiomas occur at a rate of about five to eight cases per 100,000 people per year. The five-year survival rate for meningioma is 63 percent.

"Given the high prevalence of obesity and the unfavorable prognosis for this type of tumor, these findings may be relevant for strategies aimed at reducing the risk of meningioma," Behrens noted.

The researchers looked at all of the available research on body mass index (BMI), physical activity and the brain tumors meningioma and glioma, which are the most common primary brain tumors in adults.

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A total of 12 studies on body mass index and six on physical activity were analyzed, involving 2,982 meningioma cases and 3,057 glioma cases.

The analysis found that compared to people with a normal weight, overweight people were 21 percent more likely to develop a meningioma and obese people were 54 percent more likely to develop one.

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Overweight was defined as having a BMI of 25 to 29.9; obese was considered a BMI of 30 or higher. No relationship was found between excess weight and glioma, which occurs at about the same rate as meningioma but has a worse prognosis.

Those with the highest amount of physical activity were 27 percent less likely to have a meningioma than those with the lowest amount of activity.

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The study appeared online in the journal Neurology.

Source-IANS