Increases in BMI contribute to worsening inflammatory biomarkers related to breast cancer risk in women: a longitudinal study

Background: Inflammatory adipokines and cytokines play a pivotal role in linking obesity and breast cancer (BC) risk in women. We investigated the longitudinal associations between BMI change and trajectories of inflammatory biomarkers related to BC risk.

Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted among 442 Chinese women with 3-year repeated measures from 2019 to 2021. Plasma circulating inflammatory biomarkers related to BC risk, including adiponectin (ADP), resistin (RETN), soluble leptin receptor (sOB-R), insulin-like growth factor-binding protein-3 (IGFBP-3), and C-reactive protein (CRP), were examined annually. Linear mixed-effect models (LMM) were applied to investigate associations of time-varying BMI with trajectories of biomarkers. We additionally examined the modification effect of baseline BMI groups, menopausal status, and metabolic syndrome.

Results: BMI was associated with increased levels of RETN, CRP, sOB-R, and decreased levels of ADP at baseline. An increasing BMI rate was significantly associated with an average 3-year increase in RETN (β = 0.019, 95% CI 0.004 to 0.034) and sOB-R (β = 0.022, 95% CI 0.009 to 0.035), as well as a decrease in ADP (β = - 0.006, 95% CI - 0.012 to 0.001). These associations persisted across different baseline BMI groups. An increasing BMI rate was significantly associated with an average 3-year increase in CRP levels among normal weight (β = 0.045, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.088) and overweight (β = 0.060, 95% CI 0.014 to 0.107) women. As BMI increased over time, a more remarkable decrease in ADP was observed among women with metabolic syndrome (β = - 0.016, 95% CI - 0.029 to - 0.004) than those without metabolic syndrome at baseline.

Conclusions: A higher increase rate of BMI was associated with poorer trajectories of inflammatory biomarkers related to BC risk. Recommendations for BMI reduction may benefit BC prevention in women, particularly for those with metabolic syndrome.