Applications of anthropometry to epidemiologic studies of nutrition and cancer

Epidemiologic research on cancer has recently expanded into new areas of investigation directly related to aspects of human biology, such as human diet and nutrition. The overall pattern of scientific evidence has suggested that dietary patterns in early life, as well as in adulthood, may be related to the long-term risk of certain cancers. Anthropometry has considerable potential in cancer research as an indirect means of both childhood and adult nutritional assessment. Anthropometry has advantages in application to cancer studies when the sample size is large, as it must be to test most contemporary diet-cancer hypotheses. The anthropometric dimensions selected for measurement should be reliable, readily accessible in field or clinical situations with high rates of subject participation, have established correlations to other body dimensions, and be comparable to dimensions measured in other studies. Appropriate standards of practice and quality control procedures in cancer studies may differ somewhat from those employed in human growth studies. Anthropometry is an important biomedical research methodology, which may be used to study the relations between nutrition, body size, and cancer, leading to better identification of individuals and human populations at increased risk.