Abstract
Ovarian cancer is the seventh most common cancer in women worldwide. Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses have shown a positive association between obesity and ovarian cancer, and the American Institute for Cancer Research and World Cancer Research Fund recently concluded that body fatness (marked by body mass index) is a probable risk factor for ovarian cancer. The positive relation of body fatness to ovarian cancer appears to be more evident among non-users of hormone therapy. Furthermore, compared to normal weight, obesity is associated with poorer ovarian cancer survival. Possible biological mechanisms linking obesity with ovarian cancer risk and progression include insulin resistance and hyperinsulinaemia, increased levels of circulating growth factors, chronic inflammation, and altered levels of sex hormones. Thus, obesity, as a modifiable risk factor, should be targeted for preventing ovarian cancer and for improving ovarian cancer survival.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Dikshit R, Eser S, Mathers C, Rebelo M, et al. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012. Int J Cancer. 2015;136(5):E359–86.
Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 Collaborators. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 301 acute and chronic diseases and injuries in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. Lancet (London, England). 2015;386(9995):743–800.
De Angelis R, Sant M, Coleman MP, Francisci S, Baili P, Pierannunzio D, et al. Cancer survival in Europe 1999-2007 by country and age: results of EUROCARE--5-a population-based study. Lancet Oncol. 2014;15(1):23–34.
Prat J. Ovarian carcinomas: five distinct diseases with different origins, genetic alterations, and clinicopathological features. Virchows Arch. 2012;460(3):237–49.
Beral V, Doll R, Hermon C, Peto R, Reeves G. Ovarian cancer and oral contraceptives: collaborative reanalysis of data from 45 epidemiological studies including 23,257 women with ovarian cancer and 87,303 controls. Lancet (London, England). 2008;371(9609):303–14.
Tworoger SS, Fairfield KM, Colditz GA, Rosner BA, Hankinson SE. Association of oral contraceptive use, other contraceptive methods, and infertility with ovarian cancer risk. Am J Epidemiol. 2007;166(8):894–901.
Jordan SJ, Cushing-Haugen KL, Wicklund KG, Doherty JA, Rossing MA. Breast-feeding and risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. Cancer Causes Control. 2012;23(6):919–27.
Rodriguez C, Patel AV, Calle EE, Jacob EJ, Thun MJ. Estrogen replacement therapy and ovarian cancer mortality in a large prospective study of US women. JAMA. 2001;285(11):1460–5.
Beral V, Gaitskell K, Hermon C, Moser K, Reeves G, Peto R. Menopausal hormone use and ovarian cancer risk: individual participant meta-analysis of 52 epidemiological studies. Lancet (London, England). 2015;385(9980):1835–42.
Chittenden BG, Fullerton G, Maheshwari A, Bhattacharya S. Polycystic ovary syndrome and the risk of gynaecological cancer: a systematic review. Reprod Biomed Online. 2009;19(3):398–405.
Barry JA, Azizia MM, Hardiman PJ. Risk of endometrial, ovarian and breast cancer in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Hum Reprod Update. 2014;20(5):748–58.
Pearce CL, Templeman C, Rossing MA, Lee A, Near AM, Webb PM, et al. Association between endometriosis and risk of histological subtypes of ovarian cancer: a pooled analysis of case-control studies. Lancet Oncol. 2012;13(4):385–94.
Collaborative Group on Epidemiological Studies of Ovarian C. Ovarian cancer and body size: individual participant meta-analysis including 25,157 women with ovarian cancer from 47 Epidemiological Studies. PLoS Med. 2012;9(4):e1001200.
World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. Continuous update project: ovarian cancer 2014 report: food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of ovarian cancer. 2014.
Pennington KP, Swisher EM. Hereditary ovarian cancer: beyond the usual suspects. Gynecol Oncol. 2012;124(2):347–53.
Chen S, Parmigiani G. Meta-analysis of BRCA1 and BRCA2 penetrance. J Clin Oncol. 2007;25(11):1329–33.
Koornstra JJ, Mourits MJ, Sijmons RH, Leliveld AM, Hollema H, Kleibeuker JH. Management of extracolonic tumours in patients with Lynch syndrome. Lancet Oncol. 2009;10(4):400–8.
World Cancer Research Fund & American Institute for Cancer Research. Food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: a global perspective. Washington DC: AICR; 2007.
Liu Z, Zhang TT, Zhao JJ, Qi SF, Du P, Liu DW, et al. The association between overweight, obesity and ovarian cancer: a meta-analysis. Jpn J Clin Oncol. 2015;45(12):1107–15.
Leitzmann MF, Koebnick C, Danforth KN, Brinton LA, Moore SC, Hollenbeck AR, et al. Body mass index and risk of ovarian cancer. Cancer. 2009;115(4):812–22.
Dixon SC, Nagle CM, Thrift AP, Pharoah PD, Pearce CL, Zheng W, et al. Adult body mass index and risk of ovarian cancer by subtype: a Mendelian randomization study. Int J Epidemiol. 2016;45(3):884–95.
Keum N, Greenwood DC, Lee DH, Kim R, Aune D, Ju W, et al. Adult weight gain and adiposity-related cancers: a dose-response meta-analysis of prospective observational studies. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2015;107(2)
Bae HS, Kim HJ, Hong JH, Lee JK, Lee NW, Song JY. Obesity and epithelial ovarian cancer survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Ovarian Res. 2014;7:41.
Protani MM, Nagle CM, Webb PM. Obesity and ovarian cancer survival: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2012;5(7):901–10.
Nagle CM, Dixon SC, Jensen A, Kjaer SK, Modugno F, de Fazio A, et al. Obesity and survival among women with ovarian cancer: results from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. Br J Cancer. 2015;113(5):817–26.
Smits A, Lopes A, Das N, Kumar A, Cliby W, Smits E, et al. Surgical morbidity and clinical outcomes in ovarian cancer - the role of obesity. BJOG. 2016;123(2):300–8.
Bhaskaran K, Douglas I, Forbes H, dos-Santos-Silva I, Leon DA, Smeeth L. Body-mass index and risk of 22 specific cancers: a population-based cohort study of 5.24 million UK adults. Lancet (London, England). 2014;384(9945):755–65.
Allott EH, Hursting SD. Obesity and cancer: mechanistic insights from transdisciplinary studies. Endocr Relat Cancer. 2015;22(6):R365–86.
International Agency for Research on Cancer. GLOBOCAN 2012: Estimated cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence worldwide in 2012 2012. http://globocan.iarc.fr/Pages/Map.aspx. Accessed13 Sept 2016.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jochem, C., Schlecht, I., Leitzmann, M. (2018). Epidemiologic Relationship Between Obesity and Ovarian Cancer. In: Berger, N., Klopp, A., Lu, K. (eds) Focus on Gynecologic Malignancies. Energy Balance and Cancer, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63483-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63483-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63482-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63483-8
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)