Taller Women May Be More Likely to Get Cancer

Could taller women be at a greater risk for developing cancer? A new study looking at cancer data from America, the United Kingdom, Canada and even Asia show a possible link. 

"There had been several previous studies but there hadn't been much done in North America," says Dr. Thomas E. Rohan, chair and professor of epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY, via NBC News. "We found that there was a strong, significant association between height and cancer risk, both for all cancers combined and for several specific cancer sites."

Specific cancer types may include the following: colorectum, colon, rectum, breast, endometrium, ovary, kidney, thyroid, melanoma and multiple myeloma.

For every 10 centimeter increase in height (or 4 inch increase) it can be associated with a 13 percent increase in overall cancer risk, according to the group's analysis of 144,701 women ages 50 to 79 participating in the Women's Health Initiative. This is a major, long-term research program established by the National Institutes of Health in 1991.

Rohan and his colleagues adjusted their findings by looking at specific risk factors, including body weight, ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, cancer screening, and hormone therapy use.

"This study is in women, our study was in women, but when we looked at studies of men as well, it is very similar," said Dr. Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, England and the lead author of the largest study to date of the link between height and cancer, via the news organization.

However, researchers can only speculate as to why being taller might raise the risk of cancer for some. For instance, some health experts believe that because a person is taller, they have more cells in their body that potentially mutate and lead to cancer. Some researchers also showed that height can be linked to a higher ingestion of milk, which may carry insulin-like growth factors that can put some at risk for certain types of cancer.

What do you think?

More information regarding the study can be found in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.