Sustained weight loss, weight cycling, and weight gain during adulthood and pancreatic cancer incidence in the Women’s Health Initiative (US)
Menée à partir de données portant sur 136 834 femmes ménopausées, cette étude analyse l'association entre des variations du poids à l'âge adulte et le risque de cancer du pancréas (873 cas)
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in the US. Obesity is positively associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Current health recommendations focus on weight maintenance for healthy weight individuals and weight loss for overweight/obese individuals; however, little research has assessed associations between pancreatic cancer risk and changes in weight throughout the life-course. Using prospective cohort data, we examined the relationship between baseline adulthood weight patterns self-reported between 1993 and 1998 and pancreatic cancer risk in 136,834 post-menopausal women with 873 incident pancreatic cancer cases through September 2015 in the Women’s Health Initiative. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models, adjusted for age, smoking habits, heavy alcohol consumption, and body mass index. Compared to women with stable weight, no significant associations were found between steady weight gain (HR=1.01 (95% CI: 0.83–1.22)), sustained weight loss (HR=1.26 (95% CI: 0.85–1.87)), or weight cycling patterns (HR=1.08 (95% CI: 0.89–1.30)) and pancreatic cancer. Results were similar when the outcome definition was restricted to pancreatic adenocarcinoma cases. Overall, we did not find evidence to suggest that weight changes in adulthood significantly impact pancreatic cancer risk among postmenopausal women.