Body Fat Distribution and Risk of Breast, Endometrial, and Ovarian Cancer: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study

Mounting evidence shows that adiposity increases female-specific cancer risk, but the role of body fat distribution is less clear. We used a two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) approach to elucidate causal relations of body fat distribution to the risks of breast, endometrial and ovarian cancers and their subtypes.

Body composition was assessed using segmental bioelectrical impedance analysis, yielding trunk, arm, and leg fat ratios (TFR, AFR, LFR) and BMI including 195,043 and 434,794 European women, respectively. The sample sizes for the outcomes ranged between 58,396 and 228,951. Causal effects were estimated per one standard deviation increment in the respective exposure within the radial regression framework. Robust sensitivity analyses were performed to verify MR assumptions. In a multivariable MR setting, the proportion of risk attributable to overall and abdominal fat content was assessed.

TFR, which represents abdominal fat content, was associated with ovarian cancer and its clear cell and endometrioid histotypes independent of overall fat content. BMI was inversely associated with breast cancer and its ER- and ER+ subtypes, but positively with endometrial cancer and ovarian cancer, including its endometrioid histotype. These estimates were confirmed using AFR as proxy for overall body fat.

Visceral adiposity seems to be a driver of elevated ovarian cancer risk, particularly of the endometrioid and clear cell ovarian cancer histotypes. General adiposity decreases the risk of breast cancer but increases the risk of endometrial and ovarian cancer.