SynthesisEuropean journal of epidemiology2023
Is the association of overweight and obesity with colorectal cancer underestimated? An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
Synthesis in European journal of epidemiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 43 papers, 5 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
43 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 62 citations in OpenAlex.
- At what age should people with obesity start colorectal cancer screening?International journal of cancer · 2026Pooled it
- Factors affecting survival in patients with colorectal cancer: an umbrella review.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Adiposity associations with risk of colorectal cancer: a systematic review.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2025Pooled it
- Overweight and obesity significantly increase colorectal cancer risk: a meta-analysis of 66 studies revealing a 25-57% elevation in risk.GeroScience · 2025Pooled it
- Ultra-processed food consumption and metabolic disease risk: an umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Pooled it
- Association of patient factors and health-related quality of life with weight changes during chemotherapy for colorectal cancer: secondary analysis of the SCOT trial.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Trial
- Association of dietary patterns derived by reduced-rank regression with colorectal cancer risk and mortality.European journal of nutrition · 2024Trial
- Gut microbiota and diet in colorectal cancer: Converging determinants of carcinogenesis.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- Article
- Remodeling the Immune Landscape: How Obesity-Induced SASPs Create a Pro-Tumorigenic Niche.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Body Mass Index at Diagnosis, Prediagnostic Weight Loss, and Survival in Colorectal Cancer.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- State-level burden of early onset colorectal cancer in the US: a Global Burden of Disease study, 1980 to 2021.Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center) · 2026Article
- The Impact of Metabolic Bariatric Surgery on Inflammatory Bowel Disease Risk and Outcomes in Adults With Obesity: a Propensity-matched, Nationwide, Analysis.Obesity surgery · 2026Article
- Microbiota-miR-101 interactions in obesity-associated colorectal cancer: from barrier dysfunction to precision therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Taxonomic Profiling of Systemic Inflammatory Parameters as Predictors of Tumor Progression in Primary Colorectal Cancer.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Nutrition, Environment, and Genetics in Colorectal Cancer. Epigenetics and Possible Future Perspective.Current nutrition reports · 2025Review
- Targeting Fusobacterium nucleatum in colorectal cancer: therapeutic strategies and future directions.Infectious agents and cancer · 2025Review
- Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry-Derived Adiposity and Colorectal Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Postmenopausal Women.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2025Article
- Multimodal deep learning: tumor and visceral fat impact on colorectal cancer occult peritoneal metastasis.European radiology · 2025Article
- Body mass index and colorectal cancer screening among cancer survivors: the role of sociodemographic characteristics.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Although high body-mass index (BMI) is associated with increased risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC), many CRC patients lose weight before diagnosis. BMI is often reported close to diagnosis, which may have led to underestimation or even reversal of direction of the BMI-CRC association. We aimed to assess if and to what extent potential bias from prediagnostic weight loss has been considered in available epidemiological evidence. We searched PubMed and Web of Science until May 2022 for systematic reviews and meta-analyses investigating the BMI-CRC association. Information on design aspects and results was extracted, including if and how the reviews handled prediagnostic weight loss as a potential source of bias. Additionally, we analyzed how individual cohort studies included in the latest systematic review handled the issue. Overall, 18 reviews were identified. None of them thoroughly considered or discussed prediagnostic weight loss as a potential source of bias. The majority (15/21) of cohorts included in the latest review did not exclude any initial years of follow-up from their main analysis. Although the majority of studies reported having conducted sensitivity analyses in which initial years of follow-up were excluded, results were reported very heterogeneously and mostly for additional exclusions of 1-2 years only. Where explicitly reported, effect estimates mostly increased with increasing length of exclusion. The impact of overweight and obesity on CRC risk may be larger than suggested by the existing epidemiological evidence.
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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.