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Birth size and breast cancer risk among young California-born women

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Abstract

Objective

Evaluate the risk of breast cancer associated with birth size among young California-born women.

Methods

Invasive breast cancer cases diagnosed 1988–2004 among women born in California during the 1960s were identified from the California Cancer Registry. Breast cancer cases (n = 3,712) were linked to their California birth records. Controls (n = 8,615) were randomly selected from California birth records for women, frequency matched to cases by birth year. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated from unconditional logistic regression.

Results

The adjusted OR for breast cancer associated with the highest category of birth weight (≥4,000 g) was 1.12 (95% CI 0.89–1.41), p-trend = 0.02. The adjusted OR for the highest category of birth length (>20 inches) was 1.13 (95% CI 1.02–1.25), p-trend = 0.02. These relationships appeared to be confined to cases with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) tumors (p-trend ≤0.01) or progesterone receptor positive (PR+) tumors (p-trend ≤0.02). No significant associations were found among cases with ER or PR negative tumors.

Conclusions

Our results confirm previous findings of elevated breast cancer risk associated with increases in birth size. These risks may be confined to ER+ and PR+ tumors, highlighting the potential mechanistic role of sex steroid hormonal pathways.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the following people for their technical or administrative support: staff at the California Cancer Registry for providing statewide cancer files; Phat Bui for directing the manual data abstraction of the birth records data; Theresa Saunders for her administrative support; the staff at the California Office of Vital Records for access and coordination of the birth records data abstraction; and the counties of Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Ventura for providing marriage certificate data files. This research was supported by funds provided by The Regents of the University of California, California Breast Cancer Research Program, Grant #10PB-0165A. The opinions, findings, and conclusions herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Regents of the University of California, or any of its programs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Research, Cancer Prevention Institute of California, 2001 Center Street, Suite 700, Berkeley, CA, 94704, USA

    Susan Hurley, Debbie Goldberg, Julie Von Behren, Thu Quach, Michael Layefsky & Peggy Reynolds

  2. Department of Health Research and Policy, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Thu Quach & Peggy Reynolds

Authors
  1. Susan Hurley
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  2. Debbie Goldberg
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  3. Julie Von Behren
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  4. Thu Quach
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  5. Michael Layefsky
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  6. Peggy Reynolds
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susan Hurley.

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Hurley, S., Goldberg, D., Von Behren, J. et al. Birth size and breast cancer risk among young California-born women. Cancer Causes Control 22, 1461–1470 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9821-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9821-9

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