Body size and multiple myeloma mortality: a pooled analysis of 20 prospective studies

Teras LR, Kitahara CM, Birmann BM, Hartge PA, Wang SS, Robien K, Patel AV, Adami HO, Weiderpass E, Giles GG, Singh PN, Alavanja M, Beane Freeman LE, Bernstein L, Buring JE, Colditz GA, Fraser GE, Gapstur SM, Michael Gaziano J, Giovannucci E, Hofmann JN, Linet MS, Neta G, Park Y, Purdue MP (2014) Body size and multiple myeloma mortality: a pooled analysis of 20 prospective studies. Br J Haematol

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a rare but highly fatal malignancy. High body weight is associated with this cancer, but several questions remain regarding the aetiological relevance of timing and location of body weight. To address these questions, we conducted a pooled analysis of MM mortality using 1.5 million participants (including 1388 MM deaths) from 20 prospective cohorts in the National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium. Proportional hazards regression was used to calculate pooled multivariate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Associations with elevated MM mortality were observed for higher early-adult body mass index (BMI; HR = 1.22, 95% CI: 1.09-1.35 per 5 kg/m2 ) and for higher cohort-entry BMI (HR 1.09, 95% CI: 1.03-1.16 per 5 kg/m2 ) and waist circumference (HR = 1.06, 95% CI: 1.02-1.10 per 5 cm). Women who were the heaviest, both in early adulthood (BMI 25+) and at cohort entry (BMI 30+) were at greater risk compared to those with BMI 18.5