Lipid profile and risk of ovarian tumours: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Existing data from several reports on the association between lipid profile and ovarian tumour (OT) suggests divergent conclusions. Our aim was to examine whether circulating lipid profile: total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) differed between cases and noncases of OT. Methods: Electronic repositories; PUBMED, EMBASE and Cochrane library were explored through December 2019 to retrieve published articles for inclusion in the meta-analysis after quality assessment. Heterogeneity was assessed using I 2 statistics, the effect of individual studies on the overall effect size was tested using sensitivity analysis and funnel plot was used to evaluate publication bias. Results: Twelve studies, involving 1767 OT cases and 229,167 non-cases of OT were included in this meta-analysis and I 2 statistics ranged between 97 and 99%. Mean circulating TC (− 16.60 [− 32.43, − 0.77]mg/dL; P = 0.04) and HDL (− 0.25[− 0.43, − 0.08]mmol/L; P = 0.005) were significantly lower among OT cases compared to non-OT cases. Conclusion: Decreased TC and HDL profiles were observed among subjects with OT in this collection of reports. The implications of TC and HDL in tumour manifestations and growth need to be validated in a large multi-ethnic longitudinal cohort adjusting for relevant confounders.

Influence of cholesterol on cancer progression and therapy

“…, also reported that the level of oxLDL was increased in ovarian cancer patients in comparison to the control subjects [167] . However, the majority of the findings including a large-scale meta-analysis showed decreased blood cholesterol level in ovarian cancer patient as compared to normal subjects [168 , 169 , 170 , 171] . Furthermore, an ovarian cancer patient with low blood cholesterol level at the time of diagnosis shows improvement in blood cholesterol level after successful primary surgery and chemotherapy [172] .…”

Association of lipid profile with obesity among breast cancer survivors: a cross-sectional study

“…This observation was common to findings from other studies where elevated VLDL subclasses were observed among obese adolescents [ 43 , 44 ]. The significance of high LDL in tumour carcinogenesis has been reported [ 13 , 16 , 17 ]. The role of VLDL profile as a risk factor for atherosclerosis [ 45 ], myocardial infarction [ 46 ], how it manipulates ATP-binding cassette transporters [ 47 , 48 ] and its oxidative stress-mediation capacity [ 49 ] to promote the anomalous accumulation of triglycerides [ 48 ] have been documented.…”

“…Similarly, lipid transduction may be essential to BC carcinogenesis and survivorship [ 14 , 15 ]. Several reports [ 13 , 16 , 17 ] have documented the role of lipid metabolism in carcinogenesis, but there are limited data on the dynamics of lipid metabolism in cancer survival and recurrence. Whether adiposity could trigger changes in the vasculature to promote abnormal lipid metabolism among breast cancer (BC) survivors is yet to be clearly understood.…”

Low blood levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol are positively associated with cancer

“…Also, increased signaling activity of a combination of steroid hormone receptors and growth factors via several complex metabolic circuits (Menendez and Lupu 2007 ; Oliveras et al 2010 ; Bhatia et al 2011 ) modulate and activate SREBP-, the principal regulatory factor of lipogenesis in cancer cells. Moreover, immunomodulatory, anti-oxidative, anti-apoptotic, and anti-inflammatory properties were postulated for HDL, which might influence proliferative and inflammatory pathways in cancer development (Onwuka et al 2020 ). In line, decreased HDL levels have been associated with increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 (Haddy et al 2003 ).…”