SynthesisJournal of global health2024
Role of body mass index and weight change in the risk of cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 66 cohort studies.
Synthesis in Journal of global health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 34 citations in OpenAlex.
- Life Course Trajectories of Body Mass Index and Risk of Cancer in Adulthood: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Pooled it
- Risk of cancer incidence and mortality in patients with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Body mass index and prostate cancer incidence: a comprehensive systematic review.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Intentional Weight Loss and Associated Cancer Incidence Among People With Overweight or Obesity: A Systematic Literature Review.Endocrinology, diabetes & metabolism · 2025Pooled it
- Prognostic Impact of Body Mass index in Lung Cancer Patients Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Technology in cancer research & treatmentPooled it
- A Starch- and Sucrose-Reduced Diet Has Similar Efficiency as Low FODMAP in IBS-A Randomized Non-Inferiority Study.Nutrients · 2024Trial
- SAGES colorectal and metabolic bariatric surgery committee joint task force call to action for synchronized severe obesity and colorectal cancer management.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Review
- From diabetes to tumor growth: unravelling the impact of glucose-lowering therapies.Endocrine · 2026Review
- Cardiometabolic risk and metabolic syndrome with prostate cancer-an inverse probability weighted study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Epigenetic and polygenic contributions to body mass index: a validation study of predictive models.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Oestrogen changes at menopause: insights into obesity-associated breast risk and outcomes.Nature reviews. Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Obesity, Bariatric Surgery, and Cancer Risk: Nutritional Perspectives and Long-Term Clinical Implications.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Association Between Wake-Time Movement Behaviors and Weight Loss Maintenance.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2026Article
- Multimodal (Bio)Markers and Risk of Obesity - A Comprehensive Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Obesity and Cancer: Mechanisms, Epidemiological Evidence, and Potential Risk Reduction.Journal of obesity & metabolic syndrome · 2026Review
- Cancer Prevention and Therapy With Nutritional Science: Addressing the Gap in Medical Education and Practice.MedComm · 2025Review
- The global, regional and national burden of three female pelvic cancers attributable to high BMI from 1990 to 2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 and projection to 2050.The British journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Associations of body mass index and waist circumference with incidence of overall and of 27 site-specific cancers: a population-based retrospective cohort study.Cancer communications (London, England) · 2025Article
- Global spatio-temporal evolution and health inequalities in high BMI-associated kidney cancer burden from 1990 to 2021 and burden prediction to 2040.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Preoperative kidney tumor risk estimation with AI: From logistic regression to transformer.PloS one · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: This study was designed to evaluate the effects of body mass index (BMI) and weight change on the risk of developing cancer overall and cancer at different sites. Methods: We searched PubMed and other databases up to July 2023 using the keywords related to 'risk', 'cancer', 'weight', 'overweight', and 'obesity'. We identified eligible studies, and the inclusion criteria encompassed cohort studies in English that focused on cancer diagnosis and included BMI or weight change as an exposure factor. Multiple authors performed data extraction and quality assessment, and statistical analyses were carried out using RevMan and R software. We used random- or fixed-effects models to calculate the pooled relative risk (RR) or hazard ratio along with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We used the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale to assess study quality. Results: Analysis included 66 cohort studies. Compared to underweight or normal weight, overweight or obesity was associated with an increased risk of endometrial cancer, kidney cancer, and liver cancer but a decreased risk of prostate cancer and lung cancer. Being underweight was associated with an increased risk of gastric cancer and lung cancer but not that of postmenopausal breast cancer or female reproductive cancer. In addition, weight loss of more than five kg was protective against overall cancer risk. Conclusions: Overweight and obesity increase the risk of most cancers, and weight loss of >5 kg reduces overall cancer risk. These findings provide insights for cancer prevention and help to elucidate the mechanisms underlying cancer development. Registration: Reviewregistry1786.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.