Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between waist-hip ratio and the risk of breast cancer in an urban Nigerian population. Between March 1998 and August 2000, we conducted a case-control study of hospital-based breast cancer patients (n = 234) and population-based controls (n = 273) using nurse interviewers in urban Southwestern Nigeria. Multivariable logistic regression showed a significant association between the highest tertile of waist-hip ratio and the risk of breast cancer (odds ratio= 2.67, 95% confidence interval = 1.05-6.80) among postmenopausal women. No association was found in premenopausal women. The present study, the first in an indigenous African population, supports other studies that have shown a positive association between obesity and breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the leading female malignancy in the world and is the most common cancer in Nigeria [1,2,3]
The present study, the first in an indigenous African population, supports other studies that have shown a positive association between obesity and breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women
African breast cancer patients tend to present at a young age, with large tumors and multiple nodal involvements, and have poorer clinical and pathological prognostic factors compared with Caucasian patients
Summary
Breast cancer is the leading female malignancy in the world and is the most common cancer in Nigeria [1,2,3]. African breast cancer patients tend to present at a young age, with large tumors and multiple nodal involvements, and have poorer clinical and pathological prognostic factors compared with Caucasian patients. These characteristics are somewhat similar to that of African-Americans but are in contrast with those of non-Hispanic Whites in the USA, heightening the interest in the role of genetic factors in the etiology of breast cancer in general, and in people of African origin in particular [3,5]. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between waistāhip ratio and the risk of breast cancer in an urban Nigerian population
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