Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2011 Jul;47(11):1606-15.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2011.01.020. Epub 2011 Feb 25.

Body mass index and risk of multiple myeloma: a meta-analysis of prospective studies

Alice Wallin  1 , Susanna C Larsson
Affiliations
Review

Body mass index and risk of multiple myeloma: a meta-analysis of prospective studies

Alice Wallin et al. Eur J Cancer. 2011 Jul.

Abstract

Excess body weight has been identified as a risk factor for various cancer types. Since the publication of two meta-analyses indicating that body mass index (BMI) is positively associated with the risk of multiple myeloma, the evidence from prospective cohort studies on this issue has largely accumulated. We therefore conducted a meta-analysis to update and expand the previous results. We searched the PubMed and EMBASE databases through 26 January 2011 and reviewed the reference lists of retrieved articles. Prospective cohort studies were included if they reported relative risk (RR) estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between BMI and multiple myeloma incidence or mortality. A random-effects model was used to combine study-specific results. A total of 15 cohort studies on multiple myeloma incidence and five studies on multiple myeloma mortality were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with subjects in the normal weight category, the risk of multiple myeloma was statistically significantly elevated among subjects categorised as overweight (RR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.07-1.18) or obese (RR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.08-1.35). For multiple myeloma mortality, the corresponding summary RR estimates were 1.15 (95% CI, 1.04-1.27) and 1.54 (95% CI, 1.35-1.76). Results from this meta-analysis are in line with the conclusions of the previous meta-analyses, and suggest that excess body weight is a risk factor for multiple myeloma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

LinkOut - more resources