Body mass index and breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women

The findings from 2 prospective cohort studies in Europe has strengthened the existing evidence that women who are overweight or obese during adulthood have an increased risk of breast cancer when postmenopausal.

The research funded by World Cancer Research Fund showed that the risk is substantially higher among women with a history of cardiovascular disease than among those without. This suggests that preventing obesity among postmenopausal women with cardiovascular disease may lead to greater reductions in breast cancer incidence compared with the general public.

The results, published in the journal Cancer was a meta-analysis that used individual participant data from 2 of the largest European prospective cohorts, the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and the UK Biobank. The 168,547 participants were all postmenopausal women who had not been diagnosed with cancer, type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease at the time of recruitment, all were followed up for around a decade.