Thinner girls may be at higher risk of breast cancer. Researchers writing in BioMed Central’s open access journal Breast Cancer Research found that girls who were leaner at age seven were at higher risk of cancer later in life.

Jingmei Li worked with a team of researchers from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, to study the relationships between childhood body size and tumour characteristics in a group of 2,818 Swedish breast cancer patients and 3,111 controls. She said, “Our main finding was that a large body type at age seven years was associated with a decreased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Although strongly associated with other known risk factors such as age of menarche, adult BMI and breast density, size at age seven years remained a significant protective factor after adjustment for these other issues”.

Size at age seven was also found to determine tumour characteristics, in particular, estrogen receptor status. A large body size at age seven was especially protective against estrogen receptor negative tumours, which generally fare worse in terms of prognosis.

The researchers’ classification of childhood body size was derived from nine numbered pictograms ranging from very skinny (S1) to very fat (S9). Subjects assessed their own body type at present and how they remembered themselves at seven years old. These selections were then used to group them as lean (S1 to S2), medium (S3 to S4) and large (S5 to S9). Li said, “It appears counterintuitive that a large body size during childhood can reduce breast cancer risk, because a large birth weight and a high adult BMI have been shown to otherwise elevate breast cancer risk. There remain unanswered questions on mechanisms driving this protective effect”.

These findings may have important implications. The researchers conclude, “Given the strength of the associations, and the ease of retrieval of information on childhood shape from old photographs, childhood body size is potentially useful for building breast cancer risk or prognosis models”.

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Notes to Editors

1. Effects of childhood body size on breast cancer tumour characteristics
Jingmei Li, Keith Humphreys, Louise Eriksson, Kamila Czene, Jianjun Liu and Per Hall
Breast Cancer Research (in press)

During embargo, article available here: http://breast-cancer-research.com/imedia/1595862273340013_article.pdf?random=717307

After the embargo, article available at the journal website: http://breast-cancer-research.com/

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central’s open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on the day of publication.

2. Breast Cancer Research is an international, peer-reviewed online journal, publishing original research, reviews, commentaries and reports. Research articles of exceptional interest are published in all areas of biology and medicine relevant to breast cancer, including normal mammary gland biology, with special emphasis on the genetic, biochemical, and cellular basis of breast cancer. In addition, the journal publishes clinical studies with a biological basis, including Phase I and Phase II trials. It has an impact factor of 5.05

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.

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