New meta-analysis of 11 birth weight / cancer studies below [1].
"... higher birth weight was associated with poorer prognosis of prostate cancer (RR 1.21 ..."
Some will laugh, but there are numerous studies associating early life events involving growth hormones with PCa.
-Patrick
[1] ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/316...
J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2019 Oct 24:1-8. doi: 10.1017/S2040174419000631. [Epub ahead of print]
Birth size and cancer prognosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Sharma S1, Kohli C2, Johnson L1, Bennet L1, Brusselaers N3, Nilsson PM1.
Author information
1
Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University, Skåne University Hospital, S-20502Malmö, Sweden.
2
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, India.
3
Centre for Translational Microbiome Research, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell biology, Karolinska Institute, SciLifeLab, SE- 171 76Stockholm (Solna), Sweden.
Abstract
There is an established link between birth parameters and risk of adult-onset cancers. The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease concept provides potential underlying mechanisms for such associations, including intrauterine exposure to endogenous hormones (androgens and estrogens), insulin-like growth factors, etc. However, there is conflicting evidence on the association between birth parameters and the cancer mortality risk. Therefore, we aimed to review and analyse the available data on the association linking birth weight and birth length with cancer mortality. Eleven studies were identified, published until April 2019. A significant association between birth weight and the prognosis of cancer (overall) was found (relative risk, RR 1.06, 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.01, 1.11), with low heterogeneity (I2 = 27.7%). In addition, higher birth weight was associated with poorer prognosis of prostate cancer (RR 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.44). However, the association of birth weight with breast cancer mortality risk in women was not significant (RR 1.16, 95% CI: 0.93, 1.44), which might be due to high statistical heterogeneity (I2 = 67.9%). Birth length was not associated with cancer mortality risk (RR 1.0, 95% CI: 0.90-1.11). It might be inferred that birth parameters are not associated with cancer mortality as strongly as with the risk of developing cancer. Also, the association between birth parameters and cancer mortality risk is not uniform and varies according to its subtypes, and study characteristics/design. This highlights the need for further prospective studies.
KEYWORDS:
Birth weight; ancer; fetal; mortality; neoplasms; prognosis; survival
PMID: 31647397 DOI: 10.1017/S2040174419000631