Anthropometric factors and ovarian cancer risk in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study

Abstract

Objective: To examine the associations of measured anthropometric factors, including general and central adiposity, with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study.

Methods: In 93 incident EOC cases from a Swedish population-based prospective cohort study, seven anthropometric factors; height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist- and hip circumference, and waist-hip ratio (WHR), were categorized by tertiles of baseline anthropometric measurements and relative risks were calculated using multivariate Cox regression models.

Results: A high WHR (<0.77, ≥0.77 to <0.81, ≥0.81cm/cm) was associated with a statistically significantly lower overall risk for EOC (RR 0.60; 0.36-1.00; p-trend=0.04), particularly tumours of differentiation grades 1 and 2 (RR 0.27; 0.09-0.81; p-trend=0.03) and clinical stages 1 and 2 (RR 0.32; 0.10-0.97; p-trend=0.03) and these associations were stronger in postmenopausal women. Neither height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist- or hip circumference were associated with overall risk, nor with risk for different subtypes, differentiation grade or stage.

Conclusions: These results demonstrate that a high WHR is associated with a decreased risk of EOC. Other anthropometric factors were not associated with EOC risk.