Big Baby Girls Risk Breast Cancer
Baby girls who are bigger than average length and weight at birth grow up being at increased risk of breast cancer. That’s the finding of an analysis of 32 studies involving more than 600,000 women.
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine team says birth size might explain 5% of all breast cancers. The data analysed revealed birth weight, length and head circumference were all linked with breast cancer risk.
Though a 0.5kg (1.1lb) increment in birth weight was associated with an estimated 7% increase in the risk of breast cancer, birth length appeared to be the strongest independent predictor of risk.
The risk of developing breast cancer by the age of 80 was 11.5 in 100 for the women who measured more than 51cm (20in) in length at birth, compared with 10 in 100 for those who had measured less than 49cm (19.3in).
This increase in risk, although modest, is of a similar magnitude to that of other more established risk factors for breast cancer, such as alcohol consumption, say the authors.
Source: BBC News, 29 September 2008
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