title: Lower skin cancer risk in women with higher body mass index: the women's health initiative observational study.
abstract: The unclear relationship of obesity to incident melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) risks was evaluated in the large, geographically diverse longitudinal, prospective Women's Health Initiative (WHI) observational study. Risks of melanoma and NMSC in normal weight women were compared with risks in overweight [body mass index (BMI) = 25-29.0 kg/m(2)] and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m(2)) women, using Cox proportional hazards models for melanoma and logistic regression for NMSC. Over a mean 9.4 years of follow-up, there were 386 melanoma and 9,870 NSMC cases. Risk of melanoma did not differ across weight categories (P = 0.86), whereas in fully adjusted models, NMSC risk was lower in overweight [OR, 0.93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.89-0.99] and obese (OR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.80-0.91) women (P < 0.001). Excess body weight was not associated with melanoma risk in postmenopausal women but was inversely associated with NMSC risk, possibly due to lower sun exposure in overweight and obese women. This supports previous work demonstrating the relationship between excess body weight and skin cancer risk.
authors.affiliation: Authors' Affiliations: Stanford School of Medicine, Quantitative Sciences Unit, Department of Medicine, and Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University, Stanford, California; MedStar, Hyattsville, Maryland; Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee; and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington.
authors.forename: Jean Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Henderson
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hernandez-Boussard
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kubo
authors.forename: Manisha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Desai
authors.forename: Stacy T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Sims
authors.forename: Vanita
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aroda
authors.forename: Fridtjof
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McTiernan
authors.forename: Marcia L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Stefanick
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008545:Melanoma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health
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