Serum Lipid Profiles and Cancer Risk in the Context of Obesity : Four Meta-Analyses

Abstract EN

The objective here was to summarize the evidence for, and quantify the link between, serum markers of lipid metabolism and risk of obesity-related cancers.

PubMed and Embase were searched using predefined inclusion criteria to conduct meta-analyses on the association between serum levels of TG, TC, HDL, ApoA-I, and risk of 11 obesity-related cancers.

Pooled relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals were estimated using random-effects analyses.

28 studies were included.

Associations between abnormal lipid components and risk of obesity-related cancers when using clinical cutpoints (TC≥6.50; TG≥1.71; HDL≤1.03; ApoA-I≤1.05 mmol/L) were apparent in all models.

RRs were 1.18 (95% CI: 1.08–1.29) for TC, 1.20 (1.07–1.35) for TG, 1.15 (1.01–1.32) for HDL, and 1.42 (1.17–1.74) for ApoA-I.

High levels of TC and TG, as well as low levels of HDL and ApoA-I, were consistently associated with increased risk of obesity-related cancers.

The modest RRs suggest serum lipids to be associated with the risk of cancer, but indicate it is likely that other markers of the metabolism and/or lifestyle factors may also be involved.

Future intervention studies involving lifestyle modification would provide insight into the potential biological role of lipid metabolism in tumorigenesis.