The main factors that increase the risk of developing cancer have long been known – these are smoking, drinking alcohol, poor-quality food products containing carcinogens, air pollution, etc. But it seems that there are also less obvious factors that no one has paid attention to for a long time. For example, employees of the World Cancer Research Fund have found that tall people are more likely to suffer from various types of cancer, including pancreatic cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, etc.
Tall people have an increased risk of cancer. Photo source: dzen.ru
Height increases the risk of cancer
The study by the World Cancer Research Fund is far from the first to establish a link between an increased risk of developing cancer and a person's height. For example, in 2011, a study showed that tall women had an increased risk of developing 15 of the 17 types of cancer studied. Moreover, the taller a person is, the higher their risk of developing cancer.
Researchers have found that every 10% increase in height increases the risk of cancer by 16%. The same correlation was found between height and the risk of cancer in men. Of course, 16% is not that much. For example, if out of 10,000 women 165 cm tall, 45 people get cancer every year, then out of 10,000 women 175 cm tall, 52 people get cancer every year. That is, the increase is only 7 cases per year per 10,000 people, but it still exists.
Every 10 centimeters of height increases the risk of developing cancer by 16 percent. Photo source: kardioklinika.ru
In 2019, a study by Korean scientists also showed that among more than 765 thousand patients, tall people were more likely to suffer from almost all types of cancer. However, for different types of cancer, the risk coefficient with increasing height was different. On average, for all types of cancer, an increase in height by 5 cm increased the coefficient by 1.09. It was highest for thyroid cancer, as well as breast, ovarian, kidney and lymphoma cancers.
In addition, the most pronounced connection was in women and non-smoking men. However, it was also clearly visible in other groups. All this suggests that there can be no doubt – tall people really do suffer from cancer more often. But what is the reason for this?
Why does height affect the risk of developing cancer
The studies have shown that the association between height and cancer risk is independent of ethnicity, social class and income levels, as well as genes that influence height. This suggests that the association between height and cancer risk has a biological cause.
The bodies of tall people contain more cells, which may be the reason for the increased risk of cancer. Photo source: dzen.ru
Scientists can't name it yet, but there are several theories that seem quite convincing. According to one of them, taller people simply have more cells in their bodies, for example, a longer colon. Accordingly, the more cells, the more likely it is that some of them will become malignant. That is, the probability theory works, as in the case of, for example, buying lottery tickets – the more you buy, the greater the chance of winning.
But that's not all – scientists believe that cancer occurs due to the accumulation of errors, or damage to genes, that occur during cell division. Therefore, the more a cell divides, the more genetic errors it accumulates, which are passed on to new cells. At some point, the errors lead to healthy cells turning into malignant ones. By the way, according to one version, cancer initially arose due to a change in the genes of our ancestors after they had an ancient virus.
In tall people, cells have to divide more times, which also increases the risk of developing cancer. It should be said that some studies have confirmed the correctness of the idea that having more cells increases the risk of developing malignant tumors. This may also explain why men are more prone to cancer – on average, they are taller and larger than women.
Tall people should have larger organs. Photo source: vokrugsveta.ru
Is the risk of cancer related to the size of organs
From all of the above, it follows that tall people should have larger internal organs, for example, tall women should have larger breasts and ovaries, but is this really true? In one study, scientists found that organ mass explained the relationship between height and cancer in eight out of fifteen cancer cases studied. However, there were seven more cases where organ mass did not explain the relationship between cancer and height.
Unfortunately, the study was very limited in the amount of data on organ mass, so it is not worth drawing conclusions based on it. However, it is quite possible that it is not really about height or not only about it. It can be assumed that a single common factor influences human height and the development of cancer. According to scientists, this may be a hormone known as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
This hormone helps children grow, and it also plays an important role in controlling cell growth and division in adults. Some studies have shown that people with higher levels of this hormone have a higher risk of developing certain types of cancer, such as prostate and breast cancer. However, IGF-1 hormone levels have not been associated with the risk of some other types of cancer.
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Perhaps all of the above factors play a certain role in the development of cancer, so each theory is partly true. But do not worry if you are tall – the risk of developing cancer increases slightly. If you try to lead a healthy lifestyle and eliminate other factors, the risk of cancer can be reduced. By the way, tall people need to lead a healthy lifestyle not only because of cancer. Such people have an increased risk of some other diseases, which we talked about earlier.