IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention

In 1969, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) initiated a programme on the evaluation of the carcinogenic risk of chemicals to humans involving the production of monographs of critical reviews and evaluations of individual chemicals.

The IARC Handbooks of Cancer Prevention complement the IARC Monographs’ evaluations of carcinogenic hazards. The objective of the programme is to coordinate and publish critical reviews of data on the cancer-preventive effects of primary or secondary interventions, and to evaluate these data in terms of cancer prevention with the help of international working groups of experts in prevention and related fields. The lists of evaluations are regularly updated and are available at http://handbooks.iarc.fr/.

This IARC Handbook of Cancer Prevention is partly funded by the American Cancer Society (contract ACS #26531) and by the Grant or Cooperative Agreement Number DP004954-05, funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services.

Cover image: Overweight people sitting on a bench. © Tony Alter CC-BY-2.0

• Published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France
• ©International Agency for Research on Cancer, 2018
• Distributed by WHO Press, World Health Organization, 20 Avenue Appia, 1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland (tel.: +41 22 791 3264; fax: +41 22 791 4857; email: tni.ohw@sredrokoob).
• Publications of the World Health Organization enjoy copyright protection in accordance with the provisions of Protocol 2 of the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights reserved.

The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on the maps do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted and dashed lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement.

The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers’ products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters.

The IARC Handbooks Working Group alone is responsible for the views expressed in this publication.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer welcomes requests for permission to reproduce or translate its publications, in part or in full. Requests for permission to reproduce or translate IARC publications – whether for sale or for non-commercial distribution – should be addressed to the IARC Communications Group at rf.crai@snoitacilbup.

• Corrigenda to the IARC Handbooks are published online at http://publications.iarc.fr/.

• Corrigenda to Handbook Volume 16. (PDF, 80K)

• To report an error, please contact rf.crai@omitide.
• How to cite this publication:
• IARC (2018). Absence of excess body fatness. IARC Handb Cancer Prev. 16:1–646. Available from: http://publications.iarc.fr/570.

International Agency for Research on Cancer

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) was established in 1965 by the World Health Assembly, as an independently funded organization within the framework of the World Health Organization. The headquarters of the Agency are in Lyon, France.

The Agency has as its mission to reduce the cancer burden worldwide through promoting international collaboration in research. The Agency addresses this mission through conducting cancer research for cancer prevention in three main areas: describing the occurrence of cancer; identifying the causes of cancer, and evaluating preventive interventions and their implementation. Each of these areas is a vital contribution to the spectrum of cancer prevention.

The publications of the Agency contribute to the dissemination of authoritative information on different aspects of cancer research. Information about IARC publications, and how to order them, is available at http://publications.iarc.fr/.