Background: Overweight and obesity are known risk factors for cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate associations of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with incidence of 27 site-specific cancers stratified by sex and menopausal status accounting for non-linearity.
Methods: We performed a population-based retrospective cohort study using the Korean National Health Insurance Service (KNHIS 2009-2020) database. We included 3,986,155 participants (aged ≥ 20 years), and the mean follow-up duration was 9.0 ± 1.6 years. The primary outcome was the incidence of cancer.
Results: There were positive associations between BMI or WC and incidences of cancers including overall cancer, digestive tract cancer (except for esophageal cancer), hepato-bilio-pancreatic cancer, hematological cancer, sex-specific cancers, brain/central nervous system (postmenopausal women), thyroid, renal, and bladder cancers. We observed inverse associations for several cancers, including lung and laryngeal cancers.
Conclusions: Our findings of differential associations of BMI and WC with incidence of various cancers contribute to the understanding of the relationship between obesity and cancer risk in Asian populations. These results may provide evidence to support the implementation of active surveillance and targeted management strategies for obesity.
Keywords: Abdominal obesity; Adiposity marker; Body mass index; Cancer; Obesity; Waist circumference.
© 2025 The Author(s). Cancer Communications published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. on behalf of Sun Yat‐sen University Cancer Center.