SynthesisPloS one2012
Effect of body mass index on breast cancer during premenopausal and postmenopausal periods: a meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 108 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
108 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 261 citations in OpenAlex.
- Overweight and obesity increase breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women: a meta-analysis of 38 observational studies.GeroScience · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of mammographic breast density on locoregional recurrence in breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Pooled it
- Obesity and Risk of Pre- and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer in Africa: A Systematic Review.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2025Pooled it
- Normal weight obesity, circulating biomarkers and risk of breast cancer: a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis.British journal of cancer · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Lifestyle and Reproductive Factors Associated with Risk of Breast Cancer in Asian Women.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2024Pooled it
- Factors for the Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.Journal of research in health sciences · 2021Pooled it
- Adiposity and cancer at major anatomical sites: umbrella review of the literature.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2017Pooled it
- Weight Gain After Breast Cancer Diagnosis and All-Cause Mortality: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2015Pooled it
- Body mass index and risk of breast cancer: a nonlinear dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies.Scientific reports · 2014Pooled it
- Obesity and cancer: the role of vitamin D.BMC cancer · 2014Pooled it
- A randomized controlled trial of metformin in women with components of metabolic syndrome: intervention feasibility and effects on adiposity and breast density.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2021Trial
- The impact of actual body weight-based chemotherapy dosing and body size on adverse events and outcome in older patients with breast cancer: Results from Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial 49907 (Alliance A151436).Journal of geriatric oncology · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Tumor Characteristics and Event Free Survival in Older and Younger Women with Early Breast Cancer.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Article
- Adiposity and risk of breast cancer in 280 000 Chinese women: a prospective cohort study.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Observational
- Postmenopausal Obesity and Dyslipidemia as Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Korean Women: Analysis of a National Health Screening Cohort.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Metabolomic signatures of hypocaloric dietary interventions associate with breast cancer risk in the Nurses' Health Study II.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- The effect of body mass index on breast cancer stage and breast cancer specific survival.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2025Article
- Expression Analysis of Oxidative Stress Markers 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and Protein Carbonyl in Breast Cancer and Their associations with Certain Immunological and Tumor Markers.Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP · 2025Article
- Risk Factors and Mortality Among Women With Interval Breast Cancer vs Screen-Detected Breast Cancer.JAMA network open · 2024Article
48 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveThere is no universal consensus on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and breast cancer. This meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the overall effect of overweight and obesity on breast cancer risk during pre- and post-menopausal period. DATA SOURCES: All major electronic databases were searched until April 2012 including Web of Knowledge, Medline, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. Furthermore, the reference lists and related scientific conference databases were searched. REVIEW
methodsAll prospective cohort and case-control studies investigating the association between BMI and breast cancer were retrieved irrespective of publication date and language. Women were assessed irrespective of age, race and marital status. The exposure of interest was BMI. The primary outcome of interest was all kinds of breast cancers confirmed pathologically. Study quality was assessed using the checklist of STROBE. Study selection and data extraction were performed by two authors separately. The effect measure of choice was risk ratio (RR(i)) and rate ratio (RR(a)) for cohort studies and odds ratio (OR) in case-control studies.
resultsOf 9163 retrieved studies, 50 studies were included in meta-analysis including 15 cohort studies involving 2,104,203 subjects and 3,414,806 person-years and 35 case-control studies involving 71,216 subjects. There was an inverse but non-significant correlation between BMI and breast cancer risk during premenopausal period: OR = 0.93 (95% CI 0.86, 1.02); RR(i) = 0.97 (95% CI 0.82, 1.16); and RR(a) = 0.99 (95% CI 0.94, 1.05), but a direct and significant correlation during postmenopausal period: OR = 1.15 (95% CI 1.07, 1.24); RR(i) = 1.16 (95% CI 1.08, 1.25); and RR(a) = 0.98 (95% CI 0.88, 1.09).
conclusionThe results of this meta-analysis showed that body mass index has no significant effect on the incidence of breast cancer during premenopausal period. On the other hand, overweight and obesity may have a minimal effect on breast cancer, although significant, but really small and not clinically so important.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.