Body height and weight in relation to breast cancer in women younger than 45 years were investigated in a case-control study in Sweden and Norway. The study included 317 Swedish and 105 Norwegian cases diagnosed in 1984–85 with 317 Swedish and 210 Norwegian age-matched population controls. Neither height nor body size, measured as body mass index, was associated with breast cancer. Change in body mass from the age of 20 years to 18 months before the time of diagnosis (cases) or interview (controls) had no effect on breast cancer risk. The study provides no evidence that anthropometric measures are risk factors for breast cancer in young women, indicating that the postulated inverse relationship between body mass index and pre-menopausal breast cancer could be limited to peri-menopausal women.
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Additional information
Dr Lund is at the Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway. Dr Adami is with the Unit of Cancer Epidemiology, University Hopsital, Uppsala, Sweden. Dr Bergstrom is in the Department of Statistics, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden, Dr Meirik is with the Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. Reprint requests should be addressed to Dr Lund, Institutt for Samfunnsmedisin, Postuttak, Universitetet i Tromsø, 9000 Tromsø, Norway. The study was financed by the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare and the Norwegian Cancer Society.
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Lund, E., Adami, HO., Bergstrøm, R. et al. Anthropometric measures and breast cancer in young women. Cancer Causes Control 1, 169–172 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053169
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00053169