Body Size and Bladder Cancer Risk: A Pooled Analysis of Prospective Studies From the National Cancer Institute Cohort Consortium
PURPOSE: Body size is an established risk factor for several cancers, but associations with bladder cancer risk remain unclear. METHODS: We pooled data from 2,533,008 participants in 30 international cohort studies to assess associations of BMI, waist circumference, and height with bladder cancer risk. Multivariable Cox regression models, including smoking status, duration, and other confounders, were run separately by cohort and sex, and results combined by random-effects meta-analysis. RESULTS: increment was 1.07 (95% CI, 1.05 to 1.09) for males and 1.00 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.04) for females. Higher waist circumference was also associated with increased risk of bladder cancer for males (HR per 10 cm increase 1.06 [95% CI, 1.03 to 1.08]) but not females (HR, 1.01 [95% CI, 0.97 to 1.04]). Results for height were largely consistent with those for BMI and waist circumference, with strong and consistent evidence for males, but not females. CONCLUSION: Larger body size is associated with increased risk of bladder cancer for males, but not females. Public health interventions to prevent overweight and obesity, along with smoking cessation and reduced occupational exposure to bladder carcinogens, are likely to reduce bladder cancer incidence worldwide.
Authors
- Piet A. van den Brandt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8781-8099)
- Sven Sandin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6994-4884)
- Brian Z. Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8645-5142)
- Matt J. Barnett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1028-1091)
- Mara Z. Vitolins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0348-0113)
- Heather M. Munro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1660-8083)
- Eleanor L. Watts (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9229-2589)
- Mingyang Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1324-0316)
- Guri Skeie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2476-4251)
- Eva Schernhammer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4337-9415)
- Jessica L. Petrick (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6580-450X)
- Agneta Åkesson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9594-4140)
- Victoria A. Kirsh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2422-2225)
- Amy E. Millen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9011-4869)
- Linda M. Liao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1923-5294)
- Mayo Hirabayashi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6765-6499)
- Fulvio Ricceri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8749-9737)
- Lorelei Ann Mucci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2551-4927)
- Gretchen L. Gierach (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0165-5522)
- Debra T. Silverman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8894-0301)
- Martha J. Shrubsole (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5591-7575)
- Jo L. Freudenheim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9301-0499)
- Brigid Mary Lynch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8060-547X)
- Kimberly A. Bertrand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4565-7618)
- Kim Robien (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2120-2280)
- Rachael Z. Stolzenberg‐Solomon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3698-7006)
- Chaoran Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3683-3218)
- Alicja Wolk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7387-6845)
- Nina Afshar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5587-9540)
- Susanna C. Larsson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0118-0341)
- Caroline Y. Um (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5449-6230)
- Julie R. Palmer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6534-335X)
- Wen‐Yi Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4440-3368)
- Mark A. Preston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1010-8464)
- James V. Lacey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4560-8592)
- Mridul Datta
- Anna Prizment
- Marissa M. Shams-White
- Steven C. Moore
- Sophia Wang
- Florence Le Calvez-Kelm
- Elisabete Weiderpass
- Xuehong Zhang
- Hans-Olov Adami
- Walter C. Willett
- Elizabeth A. Platz
- Thomas E. Rohan
- Emily White
- Norie Sawada
- Stella Koutros
- Jian-Min Yuan
- Samantha Rees
- Woon-Puay Koh
- Hui Cai
- Rashmi Sinha
- Alpa V. Patel
- Heather M. Ochs-Balcom
- Xiao-Ou Shu
- Chu Chen
- Marian L. Neuhouser
- Nathaniel Rothman
- Gong Yang
- Molin Wang
- A. Heather Eliassen
- Stephanie A. Smith-Warner
- The Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer
- Roger L. Milne
- Song-Yi Park
- Edward Giovannucci
- Kala Visvanathan
- 郑维 Wei Zheng
- Maria Regina Martinez
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Clinical Oncology
- Published
- 2026-04-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1200/jco-25-02155
- Primary Topic
- Bladder and Urothelial Cancer Treatments
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00