Scientists document link between height and increased cancer risk

Jul 26, 2013 18:51 GMT  ·  By

Evidence suggests that tall women are more likely to develop cancer, argues a paper published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, this July 25.

The scientists now saying that height influences cancer risk base their claims on data collected while monitoring 145,000 American women between the ages of 50 and 79.

All of these women had gone through menopause before agreeing to take part in this research, Live Science reports.

The volunteers' heights and weights were carefully measured by the researchers, who also asked the women to answer questions concerning their medical history, their lifestyle habits and their diets.

Over the following 12 years or so, some 21,000 of the participants to this study were diagnosed with cancer.

When they looked at the data they had previously collected, the scientists learned that, the taller a woman was, the more likely she was to develop cancer.

“We observed a 13 percent increase in risk for all cancers combined for every 10 centimeter [about 4 inches] increase in height,” says Dr. Thomas Rohan, a a professor of epidemiolgy and population health presently working with the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Additionally, they found that tall women are more vulnerable to certain types of cancer than they are to others.

Thus, a 10 centimeters increase in height ups kidney and blood cancer risk by 29%. The same increase makes one 13% more likely to get breast or ovarian cancer, 15% more vulnerable to melanoma and 16% more prone to developing colon cancer.

These estimates held even after the scientists had taken into account variables such as age, weight, smoking, alcohol consumption and use of certain drugs.

“The association we observed between increasing height and cancer risk is very robust, and there's some consistency with other findings in the scientific literature,” Dr. Thomas Rohan wishes to stress.

The specialists advise that future investigations should focus on determining whether this link between height and cancer risk is also true in the case of premenopausal women.