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Cancer Risk Increases with Height

By Ben Stovall

Taller people face higher risks of getting cancer, according to research published Wednesday, suggesting increases in height over the past century might help explain changes in incidence of the disease.

Previous studies have shown a link between height and cancer risk, but the latest research, published in the U.K. medical journal Lancet, extends the findings to more cancers and for women with differing lifestyles and economic backgrounds.

Overall, the latest study found the risk of cancer in women rises about 16% for every four-inch increase in height. It isn’t clear how height is linked to cancer risk.

To Investigate the impact of height on overall and site-specific cancer risk, Jane Green from the University of Oxford and colleagues assessed the association among height, other factors relevant for cancer, and cancer incidence in a study involving 1.3 million middle-aged women in Britain between 1996 and 2001.