Height linked to risk of prostate cancer
A man's height is a modest marker for risk of prostate cancer development, but is more strongly linked to progression of the cancer, say Bristol researchers.
In the September issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, 12 researchers at four universities in England studied more than 9,000 men with and without prostate cancer and estimated that the risk of developing the disease rises by about six per cent for every 10 centimeters in height a man is over the shortest group of men in the study. That means a man who is one foot taller than the shortest person in the study would have a 19 per cent increased risk of developing the disease.
However, researchers say that the magnitude of risk with increased height is small and that factors linked to height, and not height itself, are probably responsible for the relationship.
