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Prospective cohort study of metabolic risk factors and gastric adenocarcinoma risk in the Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project (Me-Can)

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Abstract

Purpose

Little is known about the association between the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma. The aim of this study was to investigate whether metabolic risk factors, together or combined, were associated with the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma.

Methods

The Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project (Me-Can) is a pooling of prospective cohorts in Austria, Norway, and Sweden with information on blood pressure, lipids, glucose, and BMI available in 578,700 individuals. Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) of gastric adenocarcinoma using metabolic risk factors categorized into quintiles and transformed into z-scores (with mean = 0 and SD = 1). The standardized sum of all z-scores created a composite MetS score.

Results

In total, 1,210 incident cases of gastric adenocarcinoma were identified. Glucose was significantly associated with the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma [calibrated HR 1.58 (1.14–2.20) per one unit increment in z-score] in women. There was a statistically significant association between triglycerides and risk of gastric adenocarcinoma per mmol increment in triglycerides [HR 1.20 (1.06–1.36) per mmol] but not for the adjusted z-score in women. There were no significant association between any metabolic factors and gastric cancer among men. The composite MetS score was associated with the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma in women [HR 1.18 (1.00–1.38) per one unit increment in z-score] but not in men.

Conclusions

Glucose and high levels of the composite MetS score were associated with an increased risk of gastric adenocarcinoma in women but not in men.

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Abbreviations

MetS:

The metabolic syndrome

BP:

Blood pressure

BMI:

Body mass index

HR:

Hazard ratio

CI:

Confidence interval

Me-Can:

The metabolic syndrome and cancer risk project

RDR:

Regression dilution ratio

RC:

Regression calibration

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Acknowledgments

Financial support was provided by the World Cancer Research Fund (Grant 2007/09), The Swedish Research Council, The Ernhold Lundström Foundation, The Einar and Inga Nilsson Foundation, The Malmö University Hospital Cancer Research Fund, The Malmö University Hospital Funds and Donations, The Crafoord Foundation, the Mossfelt Foundation, and the Swedish federal government under the agreement concerning research and education of doctors in Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no potential conflicts of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Björn Lindkvist

  2. Department of Surgery, Skåne University Hospital Lund and Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Martin Almquist

  3. Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Tone Bjørge & Anders Engeland

  4. Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Bergen, Norway

    Tone Bjørge, Anders Engeland & Randi Selmer

  5. Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Tanja Stocks, Christel Häggström & Pär Stattin

  6. Institute of Preventive Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospitals, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Tanja Stocks

  7. Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria

    Wegene Borena

  8. Department of Surgery, Skåne University Hospital Malmö and Lund University, Malmö, Sweden

    Dorthe Johansen & Jonas Manjer

  9. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutritional Research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Göran Hallmans

  10. Institute of Epidemiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany

    Gabriele Nagel

  11. Department of Radiation Sciences, Oncology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Håkan Jonsson

  12. Agency for Social and Preventive Medicine, Bregenz, Austria

    Guenter Diem

  13. Cancer Registry of Norway, Institute of Population-based Cancer Research, Oslo, Norway

    Steinar Tretli

  14. The Malmö Diet and Cancer Study, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

    Jonas Manjer

  15. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 413 45, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Björn Lindkvist

Authors
  1. Björn Lindkvist
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  2. Martin Almquist
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  3. Tone Bjørge
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  4. Tanja Stocks
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  5. Wegene Borena
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  6. Dorthe Johansen
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  7. Göran Hallmans
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  11. Randi Selmer
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  12. Guenter Diem
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Correspondence to Björn Lindkvist.

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Lindkvist, B., Almquist, M., Bjørge, T. et al. Prospective cohort study of metabolic risk factors and gastric adenocarcinoma risk in the Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project (Me-Can). Cancer Causes Control 24, 107–116 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0096-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-012-0096-6

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