Anthropometric variables and risk of breast cancer

✍ Scribed by Fabio Parazzini; Carlo Lavecchia; Eva Negri; Paolo Bruzzi; Domenico Palli; Peter Boyle

• Book ID: 102864162
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 623 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910450303

✦ Synopsis

The role of anthropometric variables in the risk of breast cancer has been investigated using pooled data from 2 hospital-based case-control studies conducted in Italy for a total data-set of 3,247 cases and 3,263 controls. No association was observed in pre-menopausal women between breast cancer risk and height, weight, indices of body mass (W/H2; W I H ' 9 and surface area. In post-menopausal women, the risk of breast cancer was inversely related to height, being 0.8 in taller women (>I65 cm) compared with women 155 cm tall or less; the trend in risk, although not constantly decreasing, was statistically significant (p trend = 0.03). A direct, statistically significant association emerged with weight and indices of body mass and post-menopausal breast cancer risk. Considering 2 indices of body weight (W/H2 and W/H'.5) and relative to thinner women, the respective estimated risks of post-menopausal breast cancer increased to 1.4 and 1.3 for grossly obese women, and the corresponding p values for trend were respectively 0.002 and 0.02. The role of overweight was more evident in women with early age at menopause, thus suggesting a duration-risk effect.