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Oncology
Protocol
Carbohydrate intake, obesity, metabolic syndrome and cancer risk? A two-part systematic review and meta-analysis protocol to estimate attributability
  1. B Sartorius1,2,
  2. K Sartorius1,2,3,
  3. C Aldous2,4,
  4. T E Madiba2,4,
  5. C Stefan2,5,
  6. T Noakes6
  1. 1Discipline of Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
  2. 2University of KwaZulu-Natal Gastrointestinal Cancer Research Centre (GICRC), Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
  3. 3Faculty of Commerce, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
  4. 4School of Clinical Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
  5. 5South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa
  6. 6Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, University of Cape Town
  1. Correspondence to Professor B Sartorius; Sartorius{at}ukzn.ac.za

Abstract

Introduction Linkages between carbohydrates, obesity and cancer continue to demonstrate conflicting results. Evidence suggests inconclusive direct linkages between carbohydrates and specific cancers. Conversely, obesity has been strongly linked to a wide range of cancers. The purpose of the study is to explore linkages between carbohydrate intake and cancer types using a two-step approach. First the study will evaluate the linkages between carbohydrate intake and obesity, potentially stratified by metabolic syndrome status. Second, the estimated attributable fraction of obesity ascribed to carbohydrate intake will be multiplied against obesity attributable fractions for cancer types to give estimated overall attributable fraction for carbohydrate versus cancer type.

Methods and analysis We will perform a comprehensive search to identify all possible published and unpublished studies that have assessed risk factors for obesity including dietary carbohydrate intake. Scientific databases, namely PubMed MEDLINE, EMBASE, EBSCOhost and ISI Web of Science will be searched. Following study selection, paper/data acquisition, and data extraction and synthesis, we will appraise the quality of studies and risk of bias, as well as assess heterogeneity. Meta-weighted attributable fractions of obesity due to carbohydrate intake will be estimated after adjusting for other potential confounding factors (eg, physical inactivity, other dietary intake). Furthermore, previously published systematic reviews assessing the cancer-specific risk associated with obesity will also be drawn. These estimates will be linked with the attributability of carbohydrate intake in part 1 to estimate the cancer-specific burden that can be attributed to dietary carbohydrates. This systematic review protocol has been developed according to the ‘Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (PRISMA-P) 2015’.

Ethics and dissemination The current study will be based on published literature and data, and, as such, ethics approval is not required. The final results of this two part systematic review (plus multiplicative calculations) will be published in a relevant international peer-reviewed journal.

Trial registration number PROSPERO CRD42015023257.

  • ONCOLOGY
  • NUTRITION & DIETETICS
  • DIABETES & ENDOCRINOLOGY
  • EPIDEMIOLOGY
  • PUBLIC HEALTH
  • STATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODS

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-009301

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