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A prospective study of body mass, height, and smoking on the risk of colorectal cancer in women

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Female registered nurses in the United States who responded to a questionnaire in 1976 that inquired about height, weight, and smoking history were followed for the development of colon or rectal cancers through May of 1984. Among the 118,404 respondents free of cancer in 1976, 191 colon cancers and 49 rectal cancers were observed during 916,170 person-years of follow-up. After omitting cases diagnosed within two years of weight report, we found little overall relation of body mass (Quetelet's) index to colon cancer risk; however there was a suggestion of elevated risk for the heaviest category of body mass index (≥29 kg/m2, relative risk (RR)=1.5; 95 percent confidence interval = 0.8–2.7) relative to the lowest category (<21 kg/m2). Self-reported body mass index from adolescence had a slightly more pronounced, although not significant, association with risk of colon cancer. Increasing height was significantly associated with colon cancer (RR=1.6, 95 percent confidence interval = 1.1–2.5 for the tallest category [≥168 cm] vs the shortest [<160 cm], trend P=0.04). Measures of current or past smoking failed to demonstrate any consistent relationship with colon cancer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Channing Laboratory, the Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, USA

    Christopher G. Chute, Walter C. Willett, Graham A. Colditz & Meir J. Stampfer

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

    Christopher G. Chute, Walter C. Willett & Meir J. Stampfer

  3. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA

    Walter C. Willett

  4. Department of Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH

    John A. Baron

Authors
  1. Christopher G. Chute
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  2. Walter C. Willett
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  3. Graham A. Colditz
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  4. Meir J. Stampfer
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  5. John A. Baron
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  6. Bernard Rosner
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  7. Frank E. Speizer
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Additional information

The Nurses Health Study has been supported by research grant CA-40356 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr Chute was supported by a National Research Service Award (T32-CA09001).

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Chute, C.G., Willett, W.C., Colditz, G.A. et al. A prospective study of body mass, height, and smoking on the risk of colorectal cancer in women. Cancer Causes Control 2, 117–124 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053131

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053131

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