Anthropometric factors and ovarian cancer risk in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study

To examine the associations of measured anthropometric factors, including general and central adiposity, with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) risk in the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study.

In 93 incident EOC cases from a Swedish population-based prospective cohort study, seven anthropometric factors; height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist- and hip circumference, and waist-hip ratio (WHR), were categorized by tertiles of baseline anthropometric measurements and relative risks were calculated using multivariate Cox regression models.

A high WHR (<0.77, ≥0.77 to <0.81, ≥0.81cm/cm) was associated with a statistically significantly lower overall risk for EOC (RR 0.60; 0.36-1.00; p-trend=0.04), particularly tumours of differentiation grades 1 and 2 (RR 0.27; 0.09-0.81; p-trend=0.03) and clinical stages 1 and 2 (RR 0.32; 0.10-0.97; p-trend=0.03) and these associations were stronger in postmenopausal women. Neither height, weight, BMI, body fat percentage, waist- or hip circumference were associated with overall risk, nor with risk for different subtypes, differentiation grade or stage.

These results demonstrate that a high WHR is associated with a decreased risk of EOC. Other anthropometric factors were not associated with EOC risk.