Analysis of the height dependence of site-specific cancer risk in relation to organ mass

Cancer risks at multiple cancer sites have been shown to correlate positively with height. An existing idea is that taller people have more cells and thus more prone to mutations that will lead to cancer, and the hypothesis is that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass. In this study we quantitatively test this hypothesis.

We perform an analysis of large-scale data on the height dependence of site-specific cancer risks. We also perform an analysis of the height dependence of measured organ masses. We then compare the cancer risk data with the expectations based on the organ mass hypothesis. Our study includes 16 cancer sites of women and 14 cancer sites of men.

For the relative risk (RR) per 10 cm increase in height for cancer incidence, the averaged expected value is within the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the averaged cancer risk data for 8 out of the 15 cancer sites for which the comparison can be made. Also, a large proportion of the sex difference of cancer risks for pancreas and lungs could come from the sex difference of the organ mass.

The hypothesis that cancer risk is proportional to the organ mass partially explains the height dependence of cancer risks. It also helps explain the sex difference of cancer risks, especially for pancreas and lungs.