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Results of a study published in the British Journal of Surgery (BJS) suggest weight loss surgery – gastric bypass, gastric banding, or sleeve gastrectomy, for example – can affect cancer risk.

For this study, the researchers used data obtained from the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England between 1997 and 2012. They matched 8,794 obese patients who underwent weight loss surgery with the same number of obese patients who didn’t have surgery to promote weight loss.

According to the researchers, patients who had weight loss surgery were 77 percent less likely to develop hormone-related cancers like breast cancer, endometrial cancer, or prostate cancer than patients who didn’t have surgery. Those who underwent gastric bypass experienced the greatest decrease in hormone-related cancer risk (84 percent), but had more than twice the risk of developing colorectal cancer. More research is needed to assess this connection