Body mass index increases the lymph node metastasis risk of breast cancer: a dose-response meta-analysis with 52904 subjects from 20 cohort studies

Since body mass index (BMI) is a convincing risk factor for breast cancer, it is speculated to be associated with lymph node metastasis. However, epidemiological studies are inconclusive. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of BMI on the lymph node metastasis risk of breast cancer. Cohort studies that evaluating BMI and lymph node metastasis in breast cancer were selected through various databases including PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC), Web of science, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals (VIP) and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform (WanFang) until November 30, 2019. The two-stage, random effect meta-analysis was performed to assess the dose-response relationship between BMI and lymph node metastasis risk. Between-study heterogeneity was assessed using I2. Subgroup analysis was done to find possible sources of heterogeneity. We included a total of 20 studies enrolling 52,904 participants. The summary relative risk (RR) (1.10, 95%CI: 1.06–1.15) suggested a significant effect of BMI on the lymph node metastasis risk of breast cancer. The dose-response meta-analysis (RR = 1.01, 95%CI: 1.00–1.01) indicated a positive linear association between BMI and lymph node metastasis risk. For every 1 kg/m2 increment of BMI, the risk of lymph node metastasis increased by 0.89%. In subgroup analyses, positive linear dose-response relationships between BMI and lymph node metastasis risk were observed among Asian, European, American, premenopausal, postmenopausal, study period less than 5 years, and more than 5 years groups. For every 1 kg/m2 increment of BMI, the risk of lymph node metastasis increased by 0.99, 0.85, 0.61, 1.44, 1.45, 2.22, and 0.61%, respectively. BMI significantly increases the lymph node metastasis risk of breast cancer as linear dose-response reaction. Further studies are needed to identify this association.