Greater cancer risk for taller people, suggests study

TALLER people have an increased risk of cancer, including of the bowel, breast, kidney and brain, say experts in Britain.

The largest study of its kind on the issue found around a 16% increased risk of cancer with each additional 4in (10.2cm) of height.

The study, of more than one million women, found that those in the shortest group — around 5ft tall or 152.4cm — experienced around 750 cancers per 100,000 women per year.

In women of average height (around 5ft 4in or 162.6cm) there were about 850 cancers per 100,000 women per year, and in the tallest group (around 5ft 9in or 175.3cm) this rose to about 1,000 cancers per 100,000 women per year.

Overall, taller women had an increased risk of at least 10 types of cancer, including malignant skin cancer, ovarian cancer and leukaemia. The findings are similar to those for men in other studies.

Jane Green, lead author of the study, from the University of Oxford, said: “The fact that the link between height and cancer risk seems to be common to many different types of cancer in different people suggests there may be a basic common mechanism, perhaps acting early in people’s lives, when they are growing.

“Of course people cannot change their height. And being taller has actually been linked to a lower risk of other conditions, such as heart disease,” she said.