A shallow look.

Data from women undergoing cervical cancer screening in the Kaiser Permanente system suggests that obese women are at a lower risk of pre-cancer but higher risk of cancer. Say what? After (much) controlling for HPV, age, ethnicity, and histology, these paradoxical risk associations persisted. Their interesting hypothesis was that screening is less effective (i.e. pre-cancers just aren’t being detected) in obese women, perhaps due to logistical issues related to body habitus. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but obesity probably decreases the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening programs due to real visualization issues that even Tony Robbins can’t fix.