RFA Programme Awarded RFA Grant 2011
Dr. Wu Ming, PhD
Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, China.
Project Title
The effect of body fatness, lifestyle factors and gene-environmental interactions on the risk of female cancers among Asians
Scientific Abstract
Female cancers are becoming significant public health problems worldwide. However, the etiology of body fatness, lifestyles, obesity-related genes and their interactions in female cancers in China and other Asian countries remain unclear.
The objectives of this study are to:
- Systematically summarise the literature on body fatness and female cancers among Asian and non-Asians.
- Evaluate the impact of body fatness changes on trends in female cancers in Chinese women and compare the results with Chinese immigrants and Caucasians
- Identify the role of lifestyles, body fatness, polymorphism of obesity-related genes, and their interactions in breast carcinogenesis among Chinese women.
To achieve these aims, systematic literature review and meta-analysis will be used to summarise the association between body fatness and female cancers, and the underpinning biological mechanisms.
The relationship between trends in female cancers and body fatness changes among Chinese women will be analysed, and will be compared with Chinese immigrants in the Netherlands and native Dutch women. A population-based case-control study on breast cancer among Chinese women will also be conducted.
It is anticipated that this study will shed further light on the relationship between body fatness and female cancers, and will improve the understanding of the etiology of breast cancer among Asians.
Project plain language abstract
Female cancers such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, and ovarian cancer, are becoming a significant health problem in China. Currently, women in Europe and America have a three-times higher risk of developing breast cancer than women in East Asia. However, the gap is closing. Since the 1990’s hospital records in China have shown a much faster annual increases in breast cancer incidence than seen in the rest of the world.
The reasons for these trends are unclear. While the effects of body fatness, lifestyle, obesity-related genes and their interactions on female cancer risk have been have been studied during the past decades, most evidence is derived from non-Asian populations.
It has been previously shown that populations in transition, whether through migration or through economic development, can help shed light on how cancer develops because they help to tease out the interplay of environment (including diet, physical activity and obesity) and genes and how these influence cancer risk.
In this study, the investigators will examine how higher body fatness increases the risk of developing female cancers in three populations: women in China, Chinese immigrant women in the Netherlands, and Dutch women.
The study has three parts: it looks at existing scientific research, it compares existing data from the Netherlands with new data gathered from China, and it carries out a new experimental project in China.
The experimental part of the study will look specifically at factors that are related to body fatness or breast cancer, such as diet, alcohol drinking, physical activity, levels of hormones in the body and genetic variation. It will then relate these factors to the risk of developing breast cancer in a large group of Chinese women. This part of the study will help us understand the mechanisms underlying the links between diet and obesity, and breast cancer.
Very few studies have looked at how body fatness and lifestyle factors interact with genes, and how this in turn affects the risk of breast cancer. This study will enhance our understanding on the links between obesity, lifestyle factors including diet and physical activity, and genes in relation to the risk of female cancers in Chinese and Dutch populations.
The study also involves researchers from Wageningen University (NL), Imperial College London (UK) and two Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in China (for Jiangsu and Wuxi City).
