New study below.
My recent "Height" post involved the European EPIC study; this new study used data from the international "PRACTICAL consortium consisting of 6207 prostate cancer cases and 6016 controls and a subset of high grade cases (2480 cases)."
"The results suggest that height is associated with high-grade prostate cancer risk. Men with height >180 cm (5' 9.8661") are at a 22% increased risk as compared to men with height <173 cm (5' 8.1102")".
My understanding of the height issue is that PCa risk is associated with prolonged exposure to growth hormones. Growth happens from birth, of course, with spurts at various ages. Richard W., in a recent post, stated that "Height correlated with testosterone {T} levels during development". The Dutch, once among the shortest in Europe, are now the tallest. But studies have reported declining T levels worldwide [2].
The growing body commits to growth based on reliable access to nutrients. The Dutch "Hongerwinter" famine of 1944-5 would certainly have affected growth in those who had to endure it. It's hard to see how T would be involved in the growth decision.
It is common to hear "They are trying for a baby" these days, whereas my generation was generally trying not to have a baby. Height has been increasing in tandem with nutrition, as T declines.
My biggest growth spurt occurred at age 10, when I didn't have much T at all. For a while, I was the tallest boy in my class, despite being the youngest. At the next spurt, my friends mostly caught up & a few became much taller. But my generation, growing up in post-WWII England, is shorter than the current generation.
I wonder if the spikes are more important than attained height?
Height is a good surrogate for growth factor exposure in a homogenous population, but the new study deals with disparate populations - e.g. average heights for Bugarians (5' 9") & Swedes (5' 11"). [3]
I wonder how the results would look if the populations had been height-adjusted?
-Patrick
[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/287...
Br J Cancer. 2017 Aug 1. doi: 10.1038/bjc.2017.231. [Epub ahead of print]
Height, selected genetic markers and prostate cancer risk: results from the PRACTICAL consortium.
Lophatananon A1,2, Stewart-Brown S1, Kote-Jarai Z3, Olama AAA4, Garcia SB4, Neal DE5,6, Hamdy FC7, Donovan JL8, Giles GG9,10, Fitzgerald LM9, Southey MC11, Pharoah P12, Pashayan N12,13, Gronberg H14, Wiklund F14, Aly M14,15, Stanford JL16,17, Brenner H18,19, Dieffenbach AK20,21, Arndt V20, Park JY21, Lin HY22, Sellers T21, Slavov C23, Kaneva R24, Mitev V24, Batra J25, Spurdle A26, Clements JA25; APCB BioResource; PRACTICAL consortium, Easton D4, Eeles RA3,27, Muir K1,2.
Collaborators (69)
Author information
1
Centre of Epidemiology, Division of Population Health, Health Services Research and Primary Care, School of Health Sciences, Medicine and Health, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
2
Division of Health sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
3
Division of Genetics and Epidemiology, The Institute of Cancer Research, London SW7 3RP, UK.
4
Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK.
5
Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
6
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre, Cambridge CB2 0RE, UK.
7
Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK.
8
School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, 39 Whatley Road, Bristol BS8 2PS, UK.
9
Cancer Epidemiology Centre, The Cancer Council Victoria, 615 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia.
10
Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
11
Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, Department of Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Grattan Street, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
12
Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Strangeways Laboratory, Worts Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK.
13
Department of Applied Health Research, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HB, UK.
14
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm 10435, Sweden.
15
Department of Clinical Sciences at Danderyds Hospital, Stockholm 17177, Sweden.
16
Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA.
17
Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
18
Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany.
19
Division of Preventive Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg 69120, Germany.
20
German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Heidelberg 69120, Germany.
21
Department of Cancer Epidemiology, Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 Magnolia Drive, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
22
Biostatistics Program, Moffitt Cancer Center, 12902 Magnolia Drive, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
23
Department of Urology and Alexandrovska University Hospital, Medical University, Sofia 1431, Bulgaria.
24
Department of Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Molecular Medicine Center, Medical University, Sofia, 2 Zdrave Str., Sofia 1431, Bulgaria.
25
Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre-Qld, Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation and School of Biomedical Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 4006, Australia.
26
Molecular Cancer Epidemiology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane 4006, Australia.
27
Royal Marsden National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, London and Sutton SM2 5PT, UK.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Evidence on height and prostate cancer risk is mixed, however, recent studies with large data sets support a possible role for its association with the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
METHODS:
We analysed data from the PRACTICAL consortium consisting of 6207 prostate cancer cases and 6016 controls and a subset of high grade cases (2480 cases). We explored height, polymorphisms in genes related to growth processes as main effects and their possible interactions.
RESULTS:
The results suggest that height is associated with high-grade prostate cancer risk. Men with height >180 cm are at a 22% increased risk as compared to men with height <173 cm (OR 1.22, 95% CI 1.01-1.48). Genetic variants in the growth pathway gene showed an association with prostate cancer risk. The aggregate scores of the selected variants identified a significantly increased risk of overall prostate cancer and high-grade prostate cancer by 13% and 15%, respectively, in the highest score group as compared to lowest score group.
CONCLUSIONS:
There was no evidence of gene-environment interaction between height and the selected candidate SNPs.Our findings suggest a role of height in high-grade prostate cancer. The effect of genetic variants in the genes related to growth is seen in all cases and high-grade prostate cancer. There is no interaction between these two exposures.British Journal of Cancer advance online publication 1 August 2017; doi:10.1038/bjc.2017.231 bjcancer.com.
PMID: 28765617 DOI: 10.1038/bjc.2017.231
