Women's Height Linked to Cancer Risk: How Tall Are You?

How tall are you? Your height could have bearing on your risk of cancer, according to a recent study. Scientists have found that the taller a postmenopausal woman is, the greater her risk is for developing cancer.

In order to examine what might lead to a woman's development of cancer post menopause, the researchers used data from the WHI, a large multicenter study that recruited postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79 between the years 1993 and 1998. They then identified 20,928 women who had been diagnosed with one or more invasive cancers during a follow-up 12 years later. In order to study the effect of height, the researchers then accounted for factors that influenced cancers including age, weight, education, smoking habits, alcohol consumption and hormone therapy.

So what did the researchers find? It turns out that for every 3.94 inches increase in height, there was a 13 percent increase in risk of developing any cancer. Among specific cancers, there was a 13 to 17 percent increase in the risk of melanoma and cancers of the breast, ovary, endometrium and colon. There was a 23 percent to 29 percent increase in the risk of developing cancers of the kidney, rectum, thyroid and blood.

"We were surprised at the number of cancer sites that were positively associated with height," said Geoffrey Kabat, one of the researchers, 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 researchers found that of the 19 cancers studied, none showed a negative association with height. The fact that some genetic variations associated with height are also linked to cancer risk could also explain the findings. That said, more research needs to be conducted before scientists can see exactly what height-related variations could predispose a person to cancer.

"Although it is not a modifiable risk factor, 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 in a news release. "There is currently a great deal of interest in early-life events that influence health in adulthood."

The findings are published in the journal Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers.