Approved Research

MRI-assessed Body Composition in Association with Plasma Proteomics Related to Cancer

Lay summary

Excess body fat and low lean muscle are linked to various health issues, including cancer. Unlike traditional body measurements such as waist size and body weight, which do not accurately measure body fat and muscle, medical imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans can reveal fat and muscle quantity and distribution and allow the identification of what an individual's body is made of, referred to as body composition. Body composition can affect metabolism and risk of disease development by influencing the expression of proteins, which are vital parts of living organisms for cell functions and structure.

Studies have been conducted on the association between body composition and certain signals in tissues for people with cancer and how this information can make cancer treatments work better and improve how well patients can recover. However, the association between body fat, muscle, and the proteins in the blood that can impact how cancer behaves is not well understood. Studying this association can help us better understand this complex association. So, this study aims at filling this gap by assessing whether body composition, as seen in an MRI Scan, is connected to proteins related to cancer circulating in the blood for both people with cancer history and those without. We will evaluate the relationship between the high-cancer-tendency profile derived from belly fat and thigh muscle amount and these cancer-related circulating proteins and whether an association between body composition and the levels of these proteins differs based on the history of cancer.

It is important to conduct this study and evaluate this complex relationship as most studies use obesity status to measure the amount of body fat and its association with proteins in the blood. Therefore, they do not account for the distribution of body fat or the effects of muscle, lacking a very important piece of the puzzle that would be valuable in predicting, preventing, and treating cancer.

This study will be conducted for approximately 36 months. The knowledge obtained from the findings of this study will shed light on how body composition is related to cancer-related proteins circulating in the blood and, subsequently, enable us to predict cancer risk among healthy individuals and disease progress among individuals suffering from cancer. The knowledge would open new possibilities for personalized prevention and treatments to improve public health outcomes.