Height may provide insight into how cancers develop

Green J. Lancet Oncol. 2011;doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(11)70154-1.

Issue: August 25, 2011

Height may be associated with an increased risk for cancer, according to data from a prospective study of women in the United Kingdom. According to researchers, the RR for total incident cancer was 1.16 for every 10-cm increase in height among six categories of reported height.

“Epidemiological studies have shown that taller people are at increased risk of cancer, but it is unclear if height-associated risks vary by cancer site, or by other factors such as smoking and socioeconomic status,” Jane Green, PhD, of the cancer epidemiology unit at the University of Oxford, and colleagues wrote in their study.

Green and colleagues conducted a large, prospective study in the United Kingdom to compare height-associated cancer risks across 17 cancer sites and in relation to major potential confounding and modifying factors.

The study included data for nearly 1.3 million middle-aged women with no previous cancers obtained between 1996 and 2001. The women were followed for 11.7 million person-years, at which time 97,376 cancers occurred, according to the study. Women were divided into six categories of reported height: less than 155 cm (reference group), 155 to 159.9 cm, 160 to 164.9 cm, 165 to 169.9 cm, 170 to 174.9 cm and at least 175 cm.

For every 10-cm increase in height, the RR for cancer incidence was 1.16 (95% CI, 1.14-1.17). Of the 17 cancer sites studied, 15 were associated with an increased risk. Additionally, 10 of those cancer sites had statistically significant risks for every 10-cm increase in height: colon (RR=1.25; 95% CI, 1.19-1.30); rectum (RR=1.4; 95% CI, 1.07-1.22); malignant melanoma (RR=1.32; 95% CI, 1.24-1.40); breast (RR=1.17; 95% CI, 1.15-1.19); endometrium (RR=1.19; 95% CI, 1.13-1.24); ovary (RR=1.17; 95% CI, 1.11-1.23); kidney (RR=1.29; 95% CI, 1.19-1.41), central nervous system (RR=1.20; 95% CI, 1.12-1.29); non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (RR=1.21; 95% CI, 1.14-1.29) and leukemia (RR=1.26; 95% CI, 1.15-1.38).

Socioeconomic status did not significantly affect the increase in total cancer RRs for every 10-cm increase in height, and neither did 10 other personal characteristics that were studied. However, the increase was significantly lower in current smokers compared with never smokers (P<.0001).

Smoking-related cancers were not as strongly related to height compared with other cancers in current smokers (RR per 10-cm increase in height=1.05; 95% CI, 1.01-1.09 for smoking-related cancers vs. RR=1.17; 95% CI, 1.13-1.22).

Data from a meta-analysis of this and 10 other prospective studies demonstrated little difference in height-associated RRs for cancer across Europe, North America, Australia and Asia, the researchers said.

According to an accompanying editorial by Andrew G. Renehan, PhD, of the School of Cancer and Enabling Sciences at the University of Manchester, it is unlikely that adult height could modify cancer risk. However, modifiable early-life and pre-pubertal factors are relevant determinants of height and, therefore, could affect the risk for adulthood diseases such as cancer.

“In the future, researchers need to explore the predictive capacities of direct measures of nutrition, psychosocial stress, and illness during childhood, rather than final adult height,” Renehan wrote.

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