Most men already know that being overweight can come with a variety of greater risk factors for disease. But new research indicates that being tall may also come with its own increase risk factors, specifically, for aggressive prostate cancer.
Research on taller men
A study from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom looked at the relationship between height, obesity and prostate cancer grade.
The researchers took data from 141,896 men whose information was gathered through the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. The men had an average age of 52 and were from Spain, Sweden, the U.K., Denmark, Italy, Greece and Germany.
There was a total of 7,024 men with prostate cancer, of which 934 men died. Of the men who survived, 726 were considered to have “high-grade” cancer and 1,388 were in the advanced stage.
Although the team found that being tall wasn’t linked to overall prostate cancer risk, it was linked to both the risk of high-grade disease and death from the cancer. More specifically, there was a 21% increased risk for high-grade prostate cancer with each additional 10 centimeters (3.94 inches) and a 17% increases risk for death with each 10 centimeters.
But why the greater risk with increased height? No one knows for sure. The lead research, Dr. Aurora Perez-Cornago, theorizes that it may be tied to diet and growth. “The finding of high risk in taller men may provide insights into the mechanism underlying prostate cancer development,” she says, “for example, related to early nutrition and growth.”
Obesity also raises the cancer risk
Less surprising is the fact that an increased BMI was associated with a higher risk of high-grade tumors, as well as a greater risk for death from the cancer.
It’s believed that this link is due to changes in hormone levels in obese men, which may increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer. In addition, the difference in cancer may also be due to the fact that obese men go to the doctor less frequently and therefore the cancer isn’t caught as early.
