Zi-Wei Lin1. 1. Department of Physics, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cancer risks at multiple cancer sites have been shown to correlate positively with height. An existing idea is that taller people have more cells and thus more prone to mutations that will lead to cancer, and the hypothesis is that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass. In this study we quantitatively test this hypothesis. METHODS: We perform an analysis of large-scale data on the height dependence of site-specific cancer risks. We also perform an analysis of the height dependence of measured organ masses. We then compare the cancer risk data with the expectations based on the organ mass hypothesis. Our study includes 16 cancer sites of women and 14 cancer sites of men. RESULTS: For the relative risk (RR) per 10 cm increase in height for cancer incidence, the averaged expected value is within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the averaged cancer risk data for 8 out of the 15 cancer sites for which the comparison can be made. Also, a large proportion of the sex difference of cancer risks for pancreas and lungs could come from the sex difference of the organ mass. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass partially explains the height dependence of cancer risks. It also helps explain the sex difference of cancer risks, especially for pancreas and lungs.
BACKGROUND:Cancer risks at multiple cancer sites have been shown to correlate positively with height. An existing idea is that taller people have more cells and thus more prone to mutations that will lead to cancer, and the hypothesis is that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass. In this study we quantitatively test this hypothesis. METHODS: We perform an analysis of large-scale data on the height dependence of site-specific cancer risks. We also perform an analysis of the height dependence of measured organ masses. We then compare the cancer risk data with the expectations based on the organ mass hypothesis. Our study includes 16 cancer sites of women and 14 cancer sites of men. RESULTS: For the relative risk (RR) per 10 cm increase in height for cancer incidence, the averaged expected value is within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the averaged cancer risk data for 8 out of the 15 cancer sites for which the comparison can be made. Also, a large proportion of the sex difference of cancer risks for pancreas and lungs could come from the sex difference of the organ mass. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass partially explains the height dependence of cancer risks. It also helps explain the sex difference of cancer risks, especially for pancreas and lungs.
Entities:
Keywords:
Body height; organ weight; risk assessment; risk factors; sex differences
Authors: E J Pavlik; P D DePriest; H H Gallion; F R Ueland; M B Reedy; R J Kryscio; J R van Nagell Journal: Gynecol Oncol Date: 2000-06 Impact factor: 5.482
Authors: J H Fowke; S S Motley; M S Cookson; R Concepcion; S S Chang; M L Wills; J A Smith Journal: Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis Date: 2006-12-19 Impact factor: 5.554
Authors: Geoffrey C Kabat; Matthew L Anderson; Moonseong Heo; H Dean Hosgood; Victor Kamensky; Jennifer W Bea; Lifang Hou; Dorothy S Lane; Jean Wactawski-Wende; JoAnn E Manson; Thomas E Rohan Journal: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev Date: 2013-07-25 Impact factor: 4.254
Authors: Elinor Zhou; Lin Wang; Celina N Santiago; Julie Nanavati; Samara Rifkin; Emma Spence; Linda M Hylind; Joell J Gills; Louis La Luna; David R Kafonek; David M Cromwell; Julia L Drewes; Cynthia L Sears; Francis M Giardiello; Gerard E Mullin Journal: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev Date: 2022-04-01 Impact factor: 4.090
Authors: Mathew Vithayathil; Paul Carter; Siddhartha Kar; Amy M Mason; Stephen Burgess; Susanna C Larsson Journal: PLoS Med Date: 2021-07-29 Impact factor: 11.613