Obesity Significantly Increases Cancer Risk in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease

Obesity is associated with an increased cancer risk in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), highlighting the need for targeted prevention strategies, according to study results published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study aimed to investigate the association between obesity and the risk of 14 obesity-related cancers (Ob-Ca) in individuals with incident CVD.

“We hypothesized that obesity is positively associated with Ob‐Ca risk in people with incident CVD independent of shared risk factors,” explained Sarah Malik, MD, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University in Augusta, GA, USA, and coauthors.

The researchers analyzed data from the ARIC (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities) study. The ARIC study is a prospective cohort initiated in 1987, involving 15 792 participants aged 45 to 64 years from 4 different centers across the United States. For this analysis, researchers focused on 5127 participants who developed CVD after their initial visit and excluded those with prevalent CVD or cancer at baseline. Data collection included measurements of obesity through BMI, waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio, alongside demographic and health-related covariates. Cancer diagnoses were ascertained through state registries and medical records until the end of 2015.

Among the participants, 33.4% were classified as obese, 40.1% as overweight, and 26.5% as normal weight. The overall cancer incidence rate was 2310 per 100 000 person-years, with obese individuals exhibiting a higher rate of 2517 per 100 000 person-years. This is compared with 2054 per 100 000 person-years for those of normal weight, representing a 23% increase in cancer incidence for the obese group. Additionally, the study found that 55.3% of the obese participants had hypertension, and 22.6% had diabetes, highlighting the prevalence of comorbid conditions in this population. Among White participants, obesity was positively associated with cancer, but not in Black participants. Additionally, a statistically significant positive association was found in White women for both body mass index with a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.64 (95% CI, 1.21-2.24), and waist circumference with a HR of 1.42 (95% CI, 1.09-1.86) between obesity and cancer risk.

“These findings from a prospective cohort study support that obesity is a risk factor for cancer in women and White people with CVD,” concluded the study authors.

Reference

Malik S, Guha A, Wang X, et al. Association between obesity and risk of total and obesity-related cancer in people with incident cardiovascular disease. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024;13(17):e034438. doi:10.1161/JAHA.124.03443