Taller Women More Likely to Develop Cancer, Study Finds

Taller Women are at high risk of developing cancer, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, has found that menopausal women who are tall are at high risk of being diagnosed with cancers of the breast, ovary, colon, endometrium, kidney, rectum, thyroid, multiple myeloma and melanoma.

Dr. Geoffrey Kabat and colleagues from the Yeshiva University in New York followed 144, 701 women who were part of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) study for over a decade. All the participants were aged between 50 and 79. In the study group, 20,928 post-menopausal women were diagnosed with one or more cancer.

Researchers interviewed the participants and noted down their height, weight and physical activity. Also, other factors that increase the risks of cancer like age, smoking habits, hormone therapy and drinking habits were also taken into consideration.

Interestingly, researchers found that height of women was more linked to cancer risk than weight. There was about 13 percent increased risk of any type of cancer for every 3.94 inches increase in height.

The genetic variations linked to height may explain the cancer occurrence in these women, researchers said. A total of 19 cancers were included and all of them were positively related with height.

"We were surprised at the number of cancer sites that were positively associated with height. In this data set, more cancers are associated with height than were associated with body mass index [BMI]," Dr. Kabat, senior epidemiologist in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the University, said in a news release. "Ultimately, cancer is a result of processes having to do with growth, so it makes sense that hormones or other growth factors that influence height may also influence cancer risk."

The results remained the same even after researchers included mammography, colorectal cancer screening history and Pap test results (a test that checks changes in the cells of cervix) to their analysis.

 "Although it is not a modifiable risk factor [A modifiable risk factor can be changed, controlled, or treated, e.g., diet, lifestyle. Height is a non-modifiable risk factor because it cannot be changed], the association of height with a number of cancer sites suggests that exposures in early life, including nutrition, play a role in influencing a person's risk of cancer," said Kabat. "There is currently a great deal of interest in early-life events that influence health in adulthood. Our study fits with this area."

A study published in the journal PLoS Medicine, last year had found a similar relationship between height of a woman and ovarian cancer.

Dr Gillian Reeves, lead author of the study from the University of Oxford concluded that the association between the two "may be due to the biological effects of factors associated with height - such as increased levels of insulin like growth factor (IGF-1) (which has been associated with a number of other cancers such as breast and prostate cancer), or increased numbers of cells being at risk of becoming cancerous."