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Meta-Analysis
. 2017 Dec 12;37(6):BSR20170945.
doi: 10.1042/BSR20170945. Print 2017 Dec 22.

Abdominal obesity and colorectal cancer risk: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

Yunlong Dong  1 , Jiao Zhou  2 , Yun Zhu  3 , Linhai Luo  1 , Tao He  1 , Hong Hu  1 , Hao Liu  4 , Yingliang Zhang  1 , Dan Luo  5 , Shuanglan Xu  6 , Lifen Xu  7 , Jianping Liu  8 , Jun Zhang  9 , Zhaowei Teng  10
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Abdominal obesity and colorectal cancer risk: systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

Yunlong Dong et al. Biosci Rep. .

Abstract

The association between abdominal obesity (as measured by waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR)) and colorectal cancer (CRC) has not been fully quantified, and the magnitude of CRC risk associated with abdominal obesity is still unclear. A meta-analysis of prospective studies was performed to elucidate the CRC risk associated with abdominal obesity. Pubmed and Embase were searched for studies assessing the association between abdominal obesity and CRC risk. Relative risks (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were pooled using random-effects model of meta-analysis. Nineteen prospective cohort studies from eighteen publications were included in this meta-analysis. A total of 12,837 CRC cases were identified among 1,343,560 participants. Greater WC and WHR were significantly associated with increased risk of total colorectal cancer (WC: RR 1.42, 95% CI 1.30, 1.55; WHR: RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.25, 1.53), colon cancer (WC: RR 1.53, 95% CI 1.36, 1.72; WHR: 1.39, 95% CI 1.18, 1.63), and rectal cancer (WC: RR 1.20, 95% CI 1.03, 1.39; WHR: RR 1.22, 95% CI 1.05, 1.42). Subgroup analyses further identified the robustness of the association above. No obvious risk of publication bias was observed. In summary, abdominal obesity may play an important role in the development of CRC.

Keywords: abdominal obesity; central obesity; colorectal cancer; waist circumference; waist to hip ratio.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no competing interests associated with the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Flow chart of study selection in the meta-analysis
.
Figure 2
Figure 2. (a) Pooled relative risk of CRC associated with waist circumference; (b) Pooled relative risk of CRC associated with waist-to-hip ratio.
Figure 3
Figure 3. (a) Sensitivity analysis of CRC associated with waist circumference; (b) Sensitivity analysis of CRC associated with waist-to-hip ratio.
Figure 4
Figure 4. (a) Both Begg’s rank correlation test and Egger’s linear regression test of CRC associated with waist circumference; (b) Both Begg’s rank correlation test and Egger’s linear regression test of CRC associated with waist-to-hip ratio.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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