Abstract 631: High BMI in relation to low risk of lung cancer among never smokers

Abstract

Background. Lean smokers have increased oxidative DNA damage relative to their non-lean counterparts, indicating their heightened susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens-induced DNA damage. Epidemiological association between body mass index (BMI) and lung cancer is inconclusive. We have reported that BMI is a protective factor for smoking-related lung cancer and so did a recent meta-analysis. Knowledge about the association between BMI and non-smoking related lung cancer is limited as this is rare in Western population. We therefore sought to investigate the association between BMI and the risk of never-smoking related lung cancer in an on-going prospective cohort study, the Singapore Chinese Health Study. Methods . The current analysis used data from the Singapore Chinese Health Study, a cohort of 63,257 middle-aged and older Chinese men and women enrolled between 1993 and 1998. As of December 31, 2015, 2,001 study participants who were free of lung cancer at baseline developed lung cancer of whom 621 were never smokers. Cox proportional hazard regression method was used to calculate hazard ratio (HR) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for lung cancer associated with BMI in never-smokers. Results . Our results shown that increasing BMI was a protective factor for never-smoking related lung cancer and there is no interaction by gender. The respective HRs and 95% CIs were 0.66 (0.45-0.95) for overall and 0.60 (0.39-0.93) in female for those with BMI>27.5 compared to those with BMI P trend =0.01). There was no difference by histologic subtypes (i.e., adenocarcinomas vs. squamous cell). Conclusion . There was an inverse association between BMI and the risk of never-smoking related lung cancer and there is no interaction by gender for this association. This association was also not different by histologic subtypes. Citation Format: Hung N. Luu, Renwei Wang, Jennifer Adams-Haduch, Aizhen Jin, Woon-Puay Koh, Jian-Min Yuan. High BMI in relation to low risk of lung cancer among never smokers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 631.