Trajectories of body fatness in adulthood and the risk of ovarian cancer
Menée à partir de données canadiennes portant sur 820 témoins et 440 patientes atteintes d'un cancer de l'ovaire, cette étude analyse l'association entre des variations de l'adiposité (mesurée à partir de l'indice de masse corporelle) à l'âge adulte et le risque de développer la maladie
Background: While excess body fatness in older adulthood has been linked to ovarian cancer, the influence of changes in body fatness over time is unclear. This study examined the association between adulthood trajectories of body mass index (BMI), a proxy for body fatness, and ovarian cancer.
Methods: In a population-based case-control study (440 cases, 820 controls), we used a group-based trajectory approach to identify BMI trajectories from age 20–70. Using unconditional logistic regression, we estimated adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) for the associations between the estimated trajectories and ovarian cancer.
Results: We identified three distinct BMI trajectories: a normal-stable trajectory, a normal-to-overweight trajectory and an overweight-to-obese trajectory, which included 63.2 %, 31.0 % and 6.8 % of the population, respectively. Multivariable aORs suggested that participants with normal weight at the onset of adulthood who became overweight over their adulthood time did not differ in their risk of ovarian cancer compared to those who maintained a normal weight throughout adulthood (aOR (95 %CI): 0.89 (0.69–1.16)). Among those in the overweight-to-obese trajectory, the aOR (95 %CI) was 1.45 (0.87–2.43), and thus in the direction of an increased ovarian cancer risk compared to those who maintained a normal weight.
Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need for further research to clarify the role of body fatness across the lifetime in the etiology of ovarian cancer.
Cancer Epidemiology , article en libre accès 2025