Childhood body size affects future breast cancer

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Thinner girls appears to be at higher risk of breast cancer. Scientists writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Breast Cancer Research observed that girls who were leaner at age seven were at higher risk of cancer during the later part of life.

Jingmei Li worked with a team of scientists from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, to study the relationships between childhood body size and tumour characteristics in a group of 2,818 Swedish patients with breast cancer and 3,111 controls. She said, "Our main finding was that a large body type at age seven years was linked to a decreased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Eventhough strongly linked to other known risk factors such as age of menarche, adult BMI and breast density, size at age seven years remained a significant protective factor after adjustment for these other issues".

Size at age seven was also found to determine tumour characteristics, in particular, estrogen receptor status. A large body size at age seven was particularly protective against estrogen receptor negative tumours, which generally fare worse in terms of prognosis. The researchers' classification of childhood body size was derived from nine numbered pictograms ranging from very skinny (S1) to very fat (S9). Subjects assessed their own body type at present and how they remembered themselves at seven years old. These selections were then used to group them as lean (S1 to S2), medium (S3 to S4) and large (S5 to S9). Li said, "It appears counterintuitive that a large body size during childhood can reduce breast cancer risk, because a large birth weight and a high adult BMI have been shown to otherwise elevate breast cancer risk. There remain unanswered questions on mechanisms driving this protective effect".

These findings may have important implications. The scientists conclude, "Given the strength of the associations, and the ease of retrieval of information on childhood shape from old photographs, childhood body size is potentially useful for building breast cancer risk or prognosis models".


Posted by: Janet    Source