Obesity, Fat Distribution and Risk of Cancer in Women and Men: A Mendelian Randomisation Study.
Nellie Y LohWenyi WangRaymond NoordamConstantinos ChristodoulidesPublished in: Nutrients (2022)
Obesity and upper-body fat distribution are independent, cardiometabolic risk factors but whether they also display comparable associations with cancer risk is unknown. We investigated the causal relationships between body mass index (BMI) and BMI-adjusted waist-to-hip ratio (WHRadjBMI) and cancer risk and searched for potential drivers linking these traits to carcinogenesis using two-sample and multivariable Mendelian randomisation. In women, genetically instrumented higher BMI was associated with lower breast (OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.81-0.93) and higher endometrial (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.55-1.96) cancer risk whilst WHRadjBMI was associated with higher colon cancer risk (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.07-1.42). In men, elevated BMI was associated with lower prostate cancer risk (OR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.85-0.98). Mechanistically, testosterone and insulin mediated 21% and 35%, respectively of the total, genetically determined association of BMI with endometrial cancer risk whilst HDL cholesterol and IGF-1 mediated 40% and 22%, respectively of the association between BMI and breast cancer risk. In men, testosterone mediated 21% of the association between BMI and prostate cancer risk. Colon cancer aside, the total amount of body fat might be more important than its location in modulating cancer susceptibility due to differential effects of obesity and fat distribution on adiposity-associated cancer drivers.
Keyphrases
- body mass index
- weight gain
- papillary thyroid
- insulin resistance
- type diabetes
- breast cancer risk
- weight loss
- metabolic syndrome
- prostate cancer
- risk factors
- adipose tissue
- squamous cell
- polycystic ovary syndrome
- middle aged
- squamous cell carcinoma
- fatty acid
- replacement therapy
- lymph node metastasis
- endometrial cancer
- pregnancy outcomes
- risk assessment
- cell proliferation
- mass spectrometry
- glycemic control
- total hip arthroplasty