Kidney cancer accounts for over 13,000 cases per year in France, affecting men twice as much as women.
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by the presence of several physiological disorders, including hypertension, obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia.
The researchers explored the link between metabolic syndrome and the risk of developing kidney cancer using data from the UK BioBank, comprising over 300,000 individuals aged 37 to 73.
Cox regression models were used to calculate risk ratios adjusted for various factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, and body mass index (BMI). Subgroup analyses were performed to explore differences by gender, age, BMI, smoking status and alcohol consumption status.
Of the 355,678 participants, 1,203 developed kidney cancer during a median follow-up of 11 years. Participants with metabolic syndrome had a significantly higher risk of kidney cancer than metabolically healthy participants. The risk increased in proportion to the number of metabolic abnormalities present.
The results also showed that individuals with both metabolic syndrome and high genetic risk (assessed by a polygenic risk score, PRS) had the highest risk of kidney cancer.
This prospective study demonstrated a strong link between metabolic syndrome and kidney cancer risk, reinforcing the hypothesis that metabolic abnormalities play a crucial role in the development of kidney cancer.
This study concludes that metabolic status is associated with an increased risk of kidney cancer, with hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity identified as the main metabolic risk factors. These findings offer new insights into the etiology of kidney cancer, and underline the importance of including metabolic status in primary prevention strategies.
