The association between height and prostate cancer grade in the Early Stage Prostate Cancer Cohort Study

We examined the relationship between height and prostate cancer grade.

The Early Stage Prostate Cancer Cohort Study is an observational cohort of 1,037 men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer, T(0-3)N(x)M(0). High-grade prostate cancer was defined as a biopsy Gleason score ≥ 7 (4 + 3). Logistic regression models were created to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the cross-sectional relationship between height and prostate cancer grade in the overall cohort and subpopulations.

We identified 939 participants with a biopsy Gleason score. High-grade prostate cancer was diagnosed in 138 participants. Overall, participants in the highest quartile of height were more than twice as likely to have a Gleason score ≥ 7 (4 + 3) than participants in the lowest quartile of height, OR 2.14 (95% CI 1.11, 4.14), after multivariate adjustment. Participants in the highest quartile of height were more likely to be diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer than participants in the lowest quartile of height among participants who were black, OR 8.00 (95% CI 1.99, 32.18), and participants who had diabetes mellitus, OR 5.09 (95% CI 1.30, 19.98).

Height is associated with increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer overall and perhaps among certain subpopulations.