Being taller and fatter increases your risk of developing ovarian cancer, and the taller you are, the greater the risk, researchers have found.
A team of researchers at the Oxford University Epidemiology Unit collated data from 47 studies in 14 countries in an effort to identify clear risk factors, the BBC reports. The studies involved about 25,000 women with ovarian cancer, and more than 80,000 women without ovarian cancer.
When factors such as age, smoking status and alcohol consumption are ruled out, the aggregated findings suggest that taller women have a higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. The risk increases with every 5cm increase in height.
‘By bringing together the worldwide evidence, it became clear that height is a risk factor,’ lead researcher Professor Valerie Beral told the BBC.
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Obese women are also at risk, with the results showing that women with an elevated BMI who have never taken hormone replacement therapy (HRT) also have an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer.
However, Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge points out that while the studies certainly suggest there is an increased risk, the actual increase is actually very small.
‘If we compare a woman who is 5ft tall with a woman who is 5ft 6in tall, there is a relative difference in ovarian cancer risk of 23%,’ Dr Pharoah told the BBC.
'But the absolute risk difference is small. The shorter woman will have a lifetime risk of about 16-in-a-1000 which increases to 20-in-a-1000 for the taller woman.'
According to Cancer Australia, more than a thousand Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and while the survival rate has increased over the past 20 years, it is still poor in comparison with other forms of cancer, with only 40 per cent of patients expected to live beyond five years.
Ovarian Cancer Australia recommend that women wanting to reduce their risk of developing ovarian cancer should maintain a healthy body weight, and say the risks also decrease with each baby a woman has. Some studies have also suggested that taking the contraceptive pill may reduce a woman’s risk of developing ovarian cancer by as much as 45%.
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Reply"...slightly higher chance..the taller you are, the greater the risk...the actual increase is actually very small."
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