• Jianxiao Gong, Fubin Liu, Yu Peng, Peng Wang, Changyu Si, Xixuan Wang, Huijun Zhou, Jiale Gu, Ailing Qin, and Fangfang Song.
• Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Key Laboratory of Molecular Cancer Epidemiology, Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control of Major Diseases in the Population, Ministry of Education, National Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, 300060, China.
• Bmc Med. 2024 Sep 2; 22 (1): 355355.

BackgroundSex disparity between metabolic-obesity (defined by body mass index, BMI) phenotypes and obesity-related cancer (ORC) remains unknown. Considering BMI reflecting overall obesity but not fat distribution, we aimed to systematically assess the association of our newly proposed metabolic-anthropometric phenotypes with risk of overall and site-specific ORC by sex.MethodsA total of 141,579 men (mean age: 56.37 years, mean follow-up time: 12.04 years) and 131,047 women (mean age: 56.22 years, mean follow up time: 11.82 years) from the UK Biobank was included, and designated as metabolic-anthropometric phenotypes based on metabolic status (metabolically healthy/unhealthy), BMI (non-obesity/obesity) and body shape (pear/slim/apple/wide). The sex-specific association of different phenotypes with overall and site-specific ORC was assessed by hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using Cox proportional hazards regression models.ResultsWe found metabolically unhealthy and/or obesity phenotypes conveyed a higher risk in men than in women for overall ORC and colorectal cancer compared with metabolically healthy non-obesity phenotype (Pinteraction < 0.05). Of note, metabolically healthy obesity phenotype contributed to increased risks of most ORC in men (HRs: 1.58 ~ 2.91), but only correlated with higher risks of endometrial (HR = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.54-2.32) and postmenopausal breast cancers (HR = 1.17, 95% CI: 1.05-1.31) in women. Similarly, even under metabolically healthy, men carrying apple and wide shapes phenotypes (metabolically healthy apple/wide and metabolically healthy non-obesity apple/wide) suffered an increased risk of ORC (mainly colorectal, liver, gastric cardia, and renal cancers, HRs: 1.20 ~ 3.81) in comparison with pear shape or non-obesity pear shape.ConclusionsThere was a significant sex disparity between metabolic-anthropometric phenotypes and ORC risk. We advised future ORC prevention and control worth taking body shape and sex disparity into account.© 2024. The Author(s).

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