Cross‐cultural correlations of childhood growth and adult breast cancer

Abstract

International differences in breast cancer incidence and mortality, and studies on Japanese migrants to the United States, point to the importance of environmental factors, including diet and nutrition, in the etiology of breast cancer. Some studies have suggested that dietary patterns in early life are important to the long-term risk of breast cancer. Given that human growth is partially a function of early dietary intake, cross-cultural correlations between breast cancer rates and anthropometric variables measured at different times in childhood provide additional information about the association of early nutrition and cancer. In this study, the associations between food consumption and anthropometric variables, and childhood growth patterns (attained size at age) and adult breast cancer rates, were considered. Data from cross-sectional growth studies conducted during the years 1956-1971 on children aged 6-18 years were obtained for age-specific stature, sitting height, weight, triceps skinfold thickness, arm and chest circumferences, and biacromial and biiliac diameters. National food consumption data were obtained from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and socioeconomic status indicators from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Cancer incidence data for the years 1972-1977 were obtained from regional cancer registries reported by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and mortality data for 1978 were obtained from national cancer registries around the world. Significant correlations were seen between national food consumption data and childhood growth (attained size at age); between cancer incidence and age-specific stature (r = 0.68), weight (r = 0.59), triceps skinfold thickness (r = 0.78), and biacromial width (r = 0.84); and between mortality and age-specific stature (r = 0.77), weight (r = 0.75), and biacromial width (r = 0.78). In general, the correlation coefficients of the observed anthropometric variables with breast cancer increase with increasing age and become highly significant at ages 13-14 years, reflecting cumulative childhood nutritional intake.

Are there ethnic differences in the association between body weight and resistance, measured by bioelectrical impedance?

“…17±20 Subjects of European origin, together with Paci®c Islanders, tend to have intermediate values for relative sitting height, whereas Asian subjects have been reported to have the highest values, although recent reports suggest that this is now changing, at least in the Japanese. 21 We did not measure relative sitting height in the present study. However, the noted differences in relative sitting height have general implications for the impedance measurements, as resistance measurements vary as a function of resistor length and cross sectional area.…”

Functional Consequences from Varying Patterns of Growth and Maturation during Adolescence

“…There is an indication that increased sitting height was significant over some ages and that biiliac diameter was less signifi cant than biacromial diameter. Both these observations Controlling for sample size at different ages did not alter the results of the correlation analyses [59]. The figures in parentheses indicate number of paired observations at each age.…”

“…Correlations were found between breast cancer mor tality rates and mean age-specific stature, weight, and biacromial diameter [59] (table 2). For prostatic and pan creatic cancer rates in males, cross-national correlations between age-specific weight, arm and chest circumfer ences in childhood (which measure frame size and lean body mass together with body fatness) were significantly greater than for triceps skinfold thickness (measuring fat ness alone).…”

“…At 13 years of age Japanese-American migrants [41,57] begin to show growth rates significantly increased over those of their Japanese counterparts living in Japan [24] and over earlier generations of JapaneseAmerican migrants to California [58]. Correlation coeffi cients between chronic disease and body size also become significant after 13 years of age and increase with increas ing age [59].…”

Applications of anthropometry to epidemiologic studies of nutrition and cancer

“…Although adult decline in stature begins relatively early, the cumulative effects are not large until old age. DeWaard (1975) (Micozzi, 1987). In a descriptive study of migrants, Buell (1973) noted increasing incidence of breast cancer in successive enerations of Japanese Japan.…”