Body composition and risk of gastric cancer: A population‐based prospective cohort study

• Published in: Cancer medicine (Malden, MA) Vol. 10; no. 6; pp. 2164 - 2174
• Main Authors: Liu, An‐Ran, He, Qiang‐Sheng, Wu, Wen‐Hui, Du, Jian‐Liang, Kuo, Zi‐Chong, Xia, Bin, Tang, Yan, Yun, Peng, Cheung, Eddie C., Tang, You‐Zhen, He, Yu‐Long, Zhang, Chang‐Hua, Yuan, Jin‐Qiu, Sun, Gang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.03.2021; John Wiley and Sons Inc; Wiley
• Subjects: Adipose tissue; Biobanks; Body composition; Body fat; Body mass index; Cancer Prevention; Cohort analysis; cohort study; Diabetes; fat mass; fat‐free mass; Gastric cancer; Hormone replacement therapy; Hypertension; Investigations; Medical diagnosis; Obesity; Original Research; Overweight; Population studies; Population-based studies; Risk factors; Skin cancer; UK Biobank; Weight control; England; Scotland; United Kingdom > UK; Wales; fat-free mass; cohort study; gastric cancer; UK Biobank; fat mass
• ISSN: 2045-7634; 2045-7634
• DOI: 10.1002/cam4.3808

ABSTRACT The recognition of adiposity as a risk factor for gastric cancer is mainly based on traditional anthropometric indices, such as body mass index, which are unable to discriminate between lean and fat mass. We undertook this study to examine body composition and subsequent risk of gastric cancer. This is a prospective analysis of participants free of cancer from the UK Biobank. We measured baseline body composition with electrical bioimpedance analysis and confirmed cancer diagnosis through linkage to cancer and death registries. We evaluated hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence interval (CIs) with COX models adjusting for potential confounders. We documented 326 cases of cancer from 474,929 participants over a median follow‐up of 6.6 years. Both male (HR 1.70, 95% CI 1.01 to 2.89) and female participants (HR 2.47, 95% CI 1.15 to 5.32) in the highest quartile of whole body fat‐free mass were associated with increased risk of gastric cancer as compared with those in the lowest quartile.Whole body fat mass was associated with a decreased risk of gastric cancer (HR per 5‐unit increase 0.86, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.99) in females, but not in males. We concluded that fat‐free mass and fat mass may have different effects on gastric cancer risk. This study provided evidence for individualized weight management for the prevention of gastric cancer. Based on UK biobank cohort (474,929 participants and 326 cases of gastric cancer), this study found fat‐free mass is assocated with increased risk of gastric cancer in both genders while fat mass is associated with reduced risk of gastric cancer in females. Our results provide new insights into relationships between obesity and gastric cancer, and deliver important clinical and public health messages about healthy body composition beyond BMI.