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Height Linked to Cancer Risk — Again
Yet another study has found a link between height and the risk for cancer.
In a large prospective cohort of postmenopausal women, researchers found a modest but statistically significant positive association between height and risk for any cancer and risk for melanoma, multiple myeloma, and cancers of the thyroid, ovary, colorectum, and endometrium.
These associations were not explained by other known risk factors, including cancer screening, according to a report published online July 25 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
The positive association between height and cancer has also been seen in men in “several studies,” study chief Geoffrey Kabat, PhD, senior epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York City, told Medscape Medical News.
An Independent Risk Factor
Dr. Kabat’s team examined the association between height and risk for all cancers combined and for cancer at 19 specific sites in 144,701 women measured at enrollment in the Women’s Health Initiative. During a median follow-up of 12 years, 20,928 women incident cancers were identified.
For every 10 cm increase in height, there was a 13% increase in risk of developing any cancer, after adjustment for “all important potential confounders,” including age, weight, education, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, and hormone therapy, the researchers report.
There was also a 13% to 17% increase in the risk for melanoma and for cancers of the breast, ovary, endometrium and colon, and a 23% to 29% increase in the risk for cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid, and blood.
None of the 19 cancer sites showed a significant inverse association with height.
The researchers considered the possibility that cancer screening might be a confounder of the association between height and cancer. It wasn’t. The association remained after the model mammography, Pap, and colorectal cancer screening histories were included.
Dr. Walter wasn’t involved in this study. However, in the recent Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study, he and his colleagues found evidence that height differences might be one factor affecting the excess cancer risk seen in men (J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013;105:860-868).
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. Published online July 25, 2013. Abstract
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