ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging
Sec. Aging and Cancer
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fragi.2025.1667490
This article is part of the Research TopicAging, Cancer, and Neurodegenerative DiseasesView all articles
Accelerated biological aging as potential mediator in the relationship between central obesity and lung cancer risk
Provisionally accepted
- Chongqing Medical University Centre for Lipid Research, Chongqing, China
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Background: The increased prevalence of obesity and incidence of lung cancer have raised significant concerns worldwide. However, the relationship between obesity and lung cancer risk, and the potential mediating effect of biological aging remains poorly understood. Methods: Using UK Biobank database, this population-based cohort study employed multivariable Cox regression to estimate HRs (Hazard Ratios) for obesity indices (waist circumference [WC], waist-hip ratio [WHR], body shape index [ABSI], conicity index [C-Index]) and lung cancer risk. Biological aging was evaluated via PhenoAge and Klemera-Doubal method age (KDMAge), with acceleration calculated by regressing biological on chronological age. Longitudinal mediation analysis explored their mediating effects. Results: Among the 301 398 participants in the study, 2 466 incident cases of lung cancer were identified. All central - obesity - related indices were significantly associated with elevated risk of lung cancer, with (WC: HR=1.10, 95% CI 1.02–1.19; WHR: 1.10, 1.03–1.18; ABSI: 1.73, 1.54–1.94; C-Index: 1.51, 1.35–1.69). Notably, PhenoAge/KDMAge acceleration mediated the associations between WHR, ABSI, C -Index and the lung cancer risk, with mediated proportions from 1.85% to 32.67%. Conclusions: This study highlights central obesity was significantly associated with incident risk of lung cancer, emphasizing biological aging's mediating role.
Keywords: Obesity, lung cancer, biological aging acceleration, biological senescence, biological age
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Gong, Deng, Bai, Li, Zhou, Ma, Gao and Lian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xuemei Lian, Chongqing Medical University Centre for Lipid Research, Chongqing, China
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