Publications by authors named "Heinz Freisling"
Article Synopsis
- Previous models for predicting weight gain haven't been very effective, leading researchers to explore both traditional environmental factors and genetic markers to enhance accuracy.* -
- A study involving nearly 246,000 participants found that environmental factors provided good predictive ability for weight gain, while genetic models performed poorly, especially at mid-late adulthood.* -
- The research suggests that environmental factors should be incorporated into prevention strategies, and that genetic factors may be more relevant in predicting weight gain earlier in life.*
Background: Elevated body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m is a major preventable cause of cancer. A single BMI measure does not capture the degree and duration of exposure to excess BMI. We investigate associations between adulthood overweight-years, incorporating exposure time to BMI ≥25 kg/m and cancer incidence, and compare this with single BMI.
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- A study examined the link between bilirubin levels in the blood and colorectal cancer (CRC) risk in 78,467 Korean adults aged 40-78, focusing on differences between sexes and non-linear relationships.
- Findings showed that higher total bilirubin levels were associated with a 26% lower risk of CRC when comparing the highest and lowest levels, with a notable U-shaped relationship in men.
- The research concluded that elevated levels of both total and indirect bilirubin are linked to a reduced risk of CRC, particularly in men, while the findings in women were less significant.
Article Synopsis
- Obesity is linked to increased cancer risk, but differences in risk based on metabolic health status are not well understood; this study reviews associations between different metabolic obesity types and cancer risk.
- Researchers screened over 15,500 records, ultimately including 31 studies, with most being at low risk of bias; findings indicate that metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese individuals are at a higher risk for overall and certain specific cancers compared to metabolically healthy normal-weight individuals.
- Specific cancers with increased risk among metabolically unhealthy overweight/obese, include endometrium (2.31 times), kidney (1.71 times), and breast cancers, with varying levels of certainty in the data.
Background: Physical activity reduces colorectal cancer risk, yet the diurnal timing of physical activity in colorectal cancer etiology remains unclear.
Methods: This study used 24-h accelerometry time series from UK Biobank participants aged 42 to 79 years to derive circadian physical activity patterns using functional principal component analysis. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine associations with colorectal cancer risk.
Association of body shape phenotypes and body fat distribution indexes with inflammatory biomarkers in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) and UK Biobank.
BMC Med
August 2024
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to compare traditional and novel body shape indexes (like ABSI and HI) regarding their associations with inflammation markers, particularly C-reactive protein (CRP), using data from the EPIC and UK Biobank cohorts.
- Participants included nearly 444,000 individuals, with the analysis involving various body shape phenotypes derived from measurements such as height and weight.
- Results indicated that traditional measures like BMI and waist circumference were positively linked to CRP levels, while some body phenotypes showed varying associations by sex, highlighting the complexity of body shape and inflammation relationships.
Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), formed endogenously or obtained exogenously from diet, may contribute to chronic inflammation, intracellular signaling alterations, and pathogenesis of several chronic diseases including colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the role of AGEs in CRC survival is less known. The associations of pre-diagnostic circulating AGEs and their soluble receptor (sRAGE) with CRC-specific and overall mortality were estimated using multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression among 1369 CRC cases in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe healthy lifestyle index (HLI), defined as the unweighted sum of individual lifestyle components, was used to investigate the combined role of lifestyle factors on health-related outcomes. We introduced weighted outcome-specific versions of the HLI, where individual lifestyle components were weighted according to their associations with disease outcomes. Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), we examined the association between the standard and the outcome-specific HLIs and the risk of T2D, CVD, cancer, and all-cause premature mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed at examining the shared and unique associations of metabolites with multiple cardiometabolic diseases (CMD), i.e. type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke.
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- Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are linked to higher overall and cause-specific mortality risks, particularly cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD).
- A study involving 15,784 participants found that a higher Fatty Liver Index (FLI), indicating more severe liver fat accumulation, correlated with increased mortality rates, especially for CVD.
- Individuals with metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and metabolic syndrome show heightened mortality risks, suggesting the need for greater awareness and management of these conditions.
Background: Healthy lifestyles are inversely associated with the risk of noncommunicable diseases, which are leading causes of death. However, few studies have used longitudinal data to assess the impact of changing lifestyle behaviours on all-cause and cancer mortality.
Methods: Within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort, lifestyle profiles of 308,497 cancer-free adults (71% female) aged 35-70 years at recruitment across nine countries were assessed with baseline and follow-up questionnaires administered on average of 7 years apart.
It remains unknown whether adiposity subtypes are differentially associated with colorectal cancer (CRC). To move beyond single-trait anthropometric indicators, we derived four multi-trait body shape phenotypes reflecting adiposity subtypes from principal components analysis on body mass index, height, weight, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist and hip circumference. A generally obese (PC1) and a tall, centrally obese (PC3) body shape were both positively associated with CRC risk in observational analyses in 329,828 UK Biobank participants (3728 cases).
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- Epidemiological studies suggest that the link between dietary protein intake and cardiovascular disease (CVD) might depend on whether the protein is plant- or animal-based, but previous research has been inconclusive.
- The analysis involved over 16,000 CVD cases and aimed to assess how different protein sources impact the risk of CVD, ischemic heart disease (IHD), and stroke using various statistical methods.
- Findings revealed that plant-derived protein intake was associated with a lower incidence of total stroke in never smokers, especially when replacing red and processed meat proteins, but overall, neither protein source showed a significant association with CVD, IHD, or stroke risk.
Dicarbonyl compounds are highly reactive precursors of advanced glycation end products (AGE), produced endogenously, present in certain foods and formed during food processing. AGE contribute to the development of adverse metabolic outcomes, but health effects of dietary dicarbonyls are largely unexplored. We investigated associations between three dietary dicarbonyl compounds, methylglyoxal (MGO), glyoxal (GO) and 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG), and body weight changes in European adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Traditional body-shape indices such as Waist Circumference (WC), Hip Circumference (HC), and Waist-to-Hip Ratio (WHR) are associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, but are correlated with Body Mass Index (BMI), and adjustment for BMI introduces a strong correlation with height. Thus, new allometric indices have been developed, namely A Body Shape Index (ABSI), Hip Index (HI), and Waist-to-Hip Index (WHI), which are uncorrelated with weight and height; these have also been associated with CRC risk in observational studies, but information from Mendelian randomization (MR) studies is missing.
Methods: We used two-sample MR to examine potential causal cancer site- and sex-specific associations of the genetically-predicted allometric body-shape indices with CRC risk, and compared them with BMI-adjusted traditional body-shape indices, and BMI.
In this study, we aimed to provide novel evidence on the impact of changing lifestyle habits on cancer risk. In the EPIC cohort, 295,865 middle-aged participants returned a lifestyle questionnaire at baseline and during follow-up. At both timepoints, we calculated a healthy lifestyle index (HLI) score based on cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index and physical activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Whether cancer risk associated with a higher body mass index (BMI), a surrogate measure of adiposity, differs among adults with and without cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and/or type 2 diabetes (T2D) is unclear. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate separate and joint associations of BMI and CVD/T2D with the risk of cancer.
Methods: This is an individual participant data meta-analysis of two prospective cohort studies, the UK Biobank (UKB) and the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and nutrition (EPIC), with a total of 577,343 adults, free of cancer, T2D, and CVD at recruitment.
Background: We investigated the association between body mass index (BMI) and obesity-related cancer risk among individuals with/without incident hypertension (HTN), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the joint associations of overweight/obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m ) and each cardiometabolic condition with obesity-related cancer risk METHODS: We conducted a population-based cohort (n = 1,774,904 individuals aged ≥40 years and free of cancer and cardiometabolic conditions at baseline) study between 2010 and 2018 with electronic health records from Spain. Our main outcome measures were hazard ratios (HRs) for incident obesity-related cancers and relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI).
Results: A total of 38,082 individuals developed obesity-related cancers after a median of 8 years of follow-up.
Association between circadian physical activity patterns and mortality in the UK Biobank.
Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act
September 2023