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Epidemiology

Associations between obesity, metabolic health, and the risk of breast cancer in East Asian women

British Journal of Cancer volume 125, pages 1718–1725 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

This study examined the associations between metabolic syndrome(MetS), obesity, their combination as a metabolic obesity phenotype, and the risk of breast cancer in East Asian postmenopausal women.

Methods

A total of 3,095,336 postmenopausal cancer-free women aged 40–79 years who underwent the National Health Insurance Service health examination between 2009 and 2010 were included. The incidence of invasive breast cancer was followed up until 2018. The presence of obesity (body mass index[BMI] ≥25 kg/m2), MetS, and each component of MetS was investigated.

Results

Obesity and MetS were associated with breast cancer risk, but when the effects of obesity and MetS were mutually adjusted, the associations were attenuated, especially for MetS. Only elevated fasting blood glucose levels and waist circumference increased the risk of breast cancer after adjusting for BMI. Compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight women, metabolically unhealthy normal-weight women, metabolically healthy obese, and metabolically unhealthy obese women had an increased risk of breast cancer.

Conclusions

Obesity and MetS were independently associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women, despite the relationship between MetS and breast cancer appearing to result from a partial association with BMI. Postmenopausal women should be encouraged to control their weight and metabolic health.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on the website of the National Health Insurance Sharing Service (https://nhiss.nhis.or.kr/), and can be accessed by submitting a study protocol, document of IRB approval, and request form after being reviewed by the relevant committee.

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Funding

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (grant number 2021R1A2C1011958).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Boyoung Park

  2. Department of Health Sciences, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Soyeoun Kim & Hayoung Kim

  3. Department of Surgery, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Chihwan Cha & Min Sung Chung

Authors
  1. Boyoung Park
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  5. Min Sung Chung
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Contributions

Conceptualisation, BP and MSC; Methodology, BP and CC; Formal analysis, BP and SK; Data curation, SK and HK; Writing—original draft preparation, BP and CC; Writing—review & editing, BP. and MSC; Project administration, SK and HK.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Boyoung Park.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Before the health examination, consent for the transfer of results to the national health screening database was obtained from each participant. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Hanyang University College of Medicine approved the study protocol (IRB no. HYI-18-175-1). Before the health examination, consent for the transfer of results to the national health screening database was obtained from each participant.

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Park, B., Kim, S., Kim, H. et al. Associations between obesity, metabolic health, and the risk of breast cancer in East Asian women. Br J Cancer 125, 1718–1725 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-021-01540-5

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