Elsevier

Annals of Oncology

Volume 22, Issue 12, December 2011, Pages 2687-2692
Annals of Oncology

original articles
epidemiology
Metabolic syndrome and the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women

https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdr025Get rights and content
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Abstract

Background

Only a few small studies investigated the association between postmenopausal breast cancer and metabolic syndrome (MetS) as a single entity.

Materials and methods

We analyzed the data of two Italian and Swiss case–control studies conducted between 1983 and 2007, including 3869 postmenopausal women with incident breast cancer and 4082 postmenopausal controls admitted to the same hospitals as cases for acute conditions. MetS was defined as the presence of at least three components among diabetes, drug-treated hypertension, drug-treated hyperlipidemia, and obesity.

Results

The odds ratios (ORs) of postmenopausal breast cancer were 1.33 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.09–1.62] for diabetes, 1.19 (95% CI 1.07–1.33) for hypertension, 1.08 (95% CI 0.95–1.22) for hyperlipidemia, 1.26 (95% CI 1.11–1.44) for body mass index ≥30 kg/m2, and 1.22 (95% CI 1.09–1.36) for waist circumference ≥88 cm. The risk of postmenopausal breast cancer was significantly increased for women with MetS (OR = 1.75, 95% CI 1.37–2.22, for three or more MetS components, P for trend for increasing number of components < 0.0001) and the risk was higher at older age (OR = 3.04, 95% CI 1.75–5.29, at age ≥70 years for three or more MetS components).

Conclusions

This study supports a direct association between MetS and postmenopausal breast cancer risk.

Keywords

breast cancer
diabetes
hyperlipidemia
hypertension
metabolic syndrome
obesity

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