Me-Can Projekt (Collaborative Study Group on Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer)

Background

The metabolic syndrome (MetS) encompassing obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidaemia, is strongly influenced by nutritional lifestyle. The MetS has consistently been related to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes, but little is known about the association with cancer. Obesity, a key feature of the MetS, has consistently been related to an increased risk of cancer overall and to cancer at some specific sites. However, less is known about the association of cancer to other MetS factors, in single or jointly.

Methods

The Me-Can cohort includes nearly 600 000 subjects with prospectively collected data on factors in the MetS, including body mass index, blood pressure, and blood glucose from sub-cohorts in Austria, Norway, and Sweden. The total number of incident cancers is nearly 40000. Factors in the MetS, in single and jointly, will be related to cancer incidence and cancer mortality, overall and for cancer at specific sites. Relative and absolute risk will be calculated as well as the fraction of cancer attributable to the MetS.

Expected results

We expect factors in the MetS to be positively related to incident and fatal overall cancer risk and to risk of cancer at some specific sites, with a higher risk for subjects with presence of several MetS factors.