Associations of adult measures of childhood growth with breast cancer: findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study

Abstract

Since the two components of adult height -leg length and trunk length -are poorly correlated with each other and appear to be influenced by different early life factors, examining their separate influence on breast cancer may provide additional insights into the mechanisms responsible for the positive association between adult height and breast cancer. In a cross-sectional study of 4286 women aged 60 -79 years, in whom there were 170 cases of breast cancer, we found total height, leg length and trunk length were all modestly positively and linearly associated with breast cancer. The magnitudes of the associations of leg and trunk length were similar: fully adjusted odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of breast cancer for a one standard deviation (s.d.) increase in leg length 1.17 (0.98, 1.39) and for a 1 s.d. increase in trunk length 1.19 (0.99, 1.41). Self-reported birth weight (available on 33% of the sample) was positively and linearly associated with breast cancer: fully adjusted odds ratio of breast cancer for a 1 s.d. increase in birth weight 1.30 (0.93, 1.80). These associations were all independent of each other and other potential confounding factors and are likely to reflect different mechanisms by which factors operating prenatally and prepubertally influence breast cancer risk.

childhood iq of parents related to characteristics of their offspring: linking the scottish mental survey 1932 to the midspan family study

“…It was therefore possible that IQ would only be related to one particular component of height. A study of height, leg length and trunk length in the British Women's Heart and Health Study found that height and its components were all positively associated with breast cancer (Lawlor et al, 2003). The IQ effect on offspring height survived adjustment for the social factors but not adjustment for parental height.…”

“…Women's social class was based on their own occupation (Gunnell et al, 2003). Deprivation category was derived from the home address.…”

Associations of Circulating C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin-6 with Survival in Women with and without Cancer: Findings from the British Women's Heart and Health Study

“…Age was calculated from the date of birth and the date of entry to study. BMI was calculated from the height and weight measured by a nurse at the baseline medical examination (18). Data on physical activity levels (hours of physical activity in a typical week) and smoking (never, past, current 1-9, current 10-19 cigarettes/day, current 20-29 and current >29 cigarettes) were obtained from the self-completed baseline questionnaire.…”

“…This ongoing cohort study comprises 4,286 women aged 60 to 79 years at the baseline assessment undertaken between 1999 and 2001, who were randomly selected from 23 towns in Britain. Full details of the data collection have been published previously (17,18). The participants were flagged with the National Health Service Cancer Register for information on cancer registrations and deaths, and all deaths registered up to 31 January 2006 were included in the analysis.…”

“…It is possible that elevated concentrations of inflammatory markers in people with cancer reflect a more advanced cancer stage at diagnosis or a more aggressive tumor, hence leading to worse prognosis (14). Alternatively, elevated IL-6 or CRP concentrations may indicate other non-cancer comorbidities (15,16) or a cumulative effect of a lifetime of adverse health events (17,18) and may thus be associated with decreased survival irrespective of the presence of cancer or the course of any malignant disease.…”