NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research from South Korea provides more
evidence of a link between height and cancer risk.
Several studies, mostly involving Western populations, have found that cancer
risk increases with height, Dr. Joohon Sung of Seoul National University and
colleagues note in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Possible mechanisms for the association, the researchers say, include early
environmental exposures that influence both growth and cancer, like diet; genes
that affect both skeletal growth and risk of cancer; and the fact that taller
people just have more body tissue and thus offer a bigger target for cancer
growth.
To investigate whether the findings might hold true in an Asian population, Sung
and colleagues looked at 788,789 Koreans 40 to 64 years old who were followed
from 1994 to 2003.
For men, they found, every additional five centimeters in height was associated
with a 5% greater risk of developing any type of cancer after they had adjusted
for socioeconomic status, age, and other relevant factors.
For women, risk increased by 7% for every extra five centimeters in height.
When the researchers looked at site-specific cancers, they found an association
between height and colon cancer and thyroid cancer for men and women. Prostate,
breast, and ovarian cancer risk also climbed with height.
"The consistencies in the associations between height and cancer in our studies
and in previous studies in different populations support the likelihood of a
common pathway that affects skeletal growth and cancer risk across these
populations," the researchers conclude.
Source : American Journal of Epidemiology, July 1, 2009
