Risk of Esophageal Cancer Decreases With Height

Recent findings published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology show that taller individuals are less likely to develop esophageal cancer.

"Individuals in the lowest quartile of height (under 5'7" for men and 5'2" for women) were roughly twice as likely as individuals in the highest quartile of height (taller than 6' for men and 5'5" for women) to have Barrett's esophagus or esophageal cancer," said Aaron P. Thrift, PhD, lead study author from the Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, in a news release. "Interestingly, the relationship between height and esophageal cancer is opposite from many other cancers - including colorectal, prostate and breast - where greater height is associated with an increased risk."

Researchers conducted a large pooled analysis with data from 14 population-based epidemiologic studies within the International Barrett's and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Consortium (BEACON), including 1,000 cases of esophageal cancer and twice as many cases of Barrett's esophagus, and twice as many controls.
The study authors conducted multiple analyses that included Mendelian randomization used to overcome issues of confounding and bias.

Results from the analyses consistently demonstrated an inverse association between height and Barrett's esophagus or esophageal cancer, where no differences in the estimates via sex, age, education, smoking, GERD symptoms or body mass index were found via abdominal obesity results.

"The identification of risk factors, such as height, will allow us to create more sophisticated and accurate methods to quantify patient risk, which will hopefully be used in the future to decide who should undergo endoscopic screening for these conditions," added Dr. Thrift.

The researchers also reported no obvious explanation for the association between short height and Barrett's esophagus or esophageal cancer. Future studies investigating the potential causal mechanisms by which risk for Barrett's esophagus or esophageal cancer might be influenced by height will be looked into further, according to the findings.