Association between visceral adiposity index and cancer risk in the UK Biobank cohort

The visceral adiposity index (VAI) is a marker of visceral fat accumulation and metabolic dysfunction, but there is limited evidence of its association with cancer. The objective of this study was to investigate associations between the VAI and both incident cancer at 23 sites and all-cause cancer.

In total, 385,477 participants (53.3% women; mean age, 56.3 years) from the UK Biobank prospective cohort were included in this study. The median follow-up was 8.2 years (interquartile range, 7.3-8.9 years). The VAI was calculated using formula the published by Amato et al. and was categorized into sex-specific tertiles. Twenty-four incident cancers were the outcomes. Cox proportional hazard models were adjusted for sociodemographics, lifestyle factors, and multimorbidity counts.

Over the follow-up period, 47,882 individuals developed cancer. In the fully adjusted models, the VAI was associated with a higher risk of six cancer sites. Individuals in the highest tertile, compared with those in the lowest tertile, had higher risks of uterine (hazard ratio [HR], 2.09; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.76-2.49), gallbladder (HR, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.26-2.66), kidney (HR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.18-1.64), liver (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.00-1.56), colorectal (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05-1.24), and breast (HR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.03-1.19) cancers and of all-cause cancer (HR, 1.05). There was no evidence of a nonlinear association between the VAI and cancer risk.

The VAI was associated with six cancer sites and with all-cause cancer. The prognostic and etiologic roles of visceral fat accumulation and dysfunction in cancer warrant further research.