Epidemiology

You have full text access to this OnlineOpen article

Body size and breast cancer risk: Findings from the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC)

  1. Petra H. Lahmann1,†,*,
  2. Kurt Hoffmann1,
  3. Naomi Allen2,
  4. Carla H. van Gils3,
  5. Kay-Tee Khaw4,
  6. Bertrand Tehard5,
  7. Franco Berrino6,
  8. Anne Tjønneland7,
  9. Janne Bigaard7,
  10. Anja Olsen7,
  11. Kim Overvad8,
  12. Françoise Clavel-Chapelon5,
  13. Gabriele Nagel9,
  14. Heiner Boeing1,
  15. Dimitrios Trichopoulos10,
  16. George Economou11,
  17. George Bellos12,
  18. Domenico Palli13,
  19. Rosario Tumino14,
  20. Salvatore Panico15,
  21. Carlotta Sacerdote16,
  22. Vittorio Krogh6,
  23. Petra H.M. Peeters3,
  24. H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita17,
  25. Eiliv Lund18,
  26. Eva Ardanaz19,
  27. Pilar Amiano20,
  28. Guillem Pera21,
  29. José R. Quirós22,
  30. Carmen Martínez23,
  31. María J. Tormo24,
  32. Elisabet Wirfält25,
  33. Göran Berglund25,
  34. Göran Hallmans26,
  35. Timothy J. Key2,
  36. Gillian Reeves2,
  37. Sheila Bingham27,
  38. Teresa Norat28,
  39. Carine Biessy28,
  40. Rudolf Kaaks28,
  41. Elio Riboli28

Article first published online: 17 MAY 2004

DOI: 10.1002/ijc.20315

Issue

International Journal of Cancer

International Journal of Cancer

Volume 111, Issue 5, pages 762–771, 20 September 2004

Additional Information

How to Cite

Lahmann, P. H., Hoffmann, K., Allen, N., van Gils, C. H., Khaw, K.-T., Tehard, B., Berrino, F., Tjønneland, A., Bigaard, J., Olsen, A., Overvad, K., Clavel-Chapelon, F., Nagel, G., Boeing, H., Trichopoulos, D., Economou, G., Bellos, G., Palli, D., Tumino, R., Panico, S., Sacerdote, C., Krogh, V., Peeters, P. H.M., Bueno-de-Mesquita, H. B., Lund, E., Ardanaz, E., Amiano, P., Pera, G., Quirós, J. R., Martínez, C., Tormo, M. J., Wirfält, E., Berglund, G., Hallmans, G., Key, T. J., Reeves, G., Bingham, S., Norat, T., Biessy, C., Kaaks, R. and Riboli, E. (2004), Body size and breast cancer risk: Findings from the European prospective investigation into cancer and nutrition (EPIC). Int. J. Cancer, 111: 762–771. doi: 10.1002/ijc.20315

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany

  2. 2

    Epidemiology Unit, Cancer Research UK, Oxford University, Oxford, UK

  3. 3

    Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands

  4. 4

    Department of Public Health and Primary Care, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

  5. 5

    INSERM U 521, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

  6. 6

    Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy

  7. 7

    Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark

  8. 8

    Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aalborg Hospital and Aarhus University Hospital, Aalborg, Denmark

  9. 9

    German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany

  10. 10

    Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

  11. 11

    Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece

  12. 12

    Coropi Health Center, Greek Ministry of Health, Athens, Greece

  13. 13

    Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, CSPO-Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Florence, Italy

  14. 14

    Cancer Registry, Azienda Ospedaliera “Civile-M.P. Arezzo”, Ragusa, Italy

  15. 15

    Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Frederico II University, Naples, Italy

  16. 16

    Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

  17. 17

    National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands

  18. 18

    Institute of Community Medicine, University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway

  19. 19

    Public Health Institute, Navarra, Spain

  20. 20

    Department of Public Health of Guipuzkoa, San Sebastian, Spain

  21. 21

    Department of Epidemiology, Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain

  22. 22

    Health Information Unit, Public Health and Planning Directorate, Health and Health Services Council, Principality of Asturias, Oviedo, Spain

  23. 23

    Andalusian School of Public Health, Granada, Spain

  24. 24

    Council for Health and Consumer Affairs, Murcia, Spain

  25. 25

    Department of Medicine, Lund University, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden

  26. 26

    Public Health and Clinical Medicine, University Hospital of Northern Sweden, Umeå, Sweden

  27. 27

    Dunn Human Nutrition Unit, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, UK

  28. 28

    IARC–WHO, Lyon, France

  1. †

    Fax: +49-33200-88-721

*Department of Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, 14558 Nuthetal, Germany

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 8 JUL 2004
  2. Article first published online: 17 MAY 2004
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 8 MAR 2004
  4. Manuscript Revised: 3 MAR 2004
  5. Manuscript Received: 22 DEC 2003

Funded by

  • Europe Against Cancer programme of the European Commission (SANCO)
  • Deutsche Krebshilfe
  • German Cancer Research Center
  • German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
  • Danish Cancer Society
  • Health Research Fund of the Spanish Ministry of Health
  • Spanish regional governments of Andalusia, Asturia, Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra
  • Cancer Research UK
  • Medical Research Council, UK
  • Stroke Association, UK
  • British Heart Foundation
  • Department of Health, UK
  • Food Standards Agency, UK
  • Wellcome Trust, UK
  • Greek Ministry of Health
  • Greek Ministry of Education
  • Italian Association for Research on Cancer
  • Italian National Research Council
  • Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports
  • National Cancer Registry and regional cancer registries of Amsterdam, East and Maastricht, the Netherlands
  • World Cancer Research Fund
  • Swedish Cancer Society
  • Swedish Scientific Council
  • regional government of Skåne, Sweden

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (169K)

REFERENCES

  • 1
    IARC. Weight control and physical activity. vol. 6. Lyon: IARC, 2002.
  • 2
    Friedenreich C. Review of anthropometric factors and breast cancer risk. Eur J Cancer Prev 2001; 10: 15–32.
  • 3
    Willett W. Diet and breast cancer. J Intern Med 2001; 249: 395–411.
    Direct Link:
  • 4
    Stoll B. Adiposity as a risk determinant for postmenopausal breast cancer. Int J Obes 2000; 24: 527–33.
  • 5
    Ballard-Barbash R. Energy balance, anthropometry and cancer. New York: Academic Press, 1999.
  • 6
    Ziegler R. Anthropometry and breast cancer. J Nutr 1997; 127 (Suppl): 924S–8S.
  • 7
    Gunnell D, Okasha M, Davey Smith G, Oliver S, Sandhu J, Holly J. Height, leg length, and cancer risk: a systematic review. Epidemiol Rev 2001; 23: 313–42.
  • 8
    Rock CL, Demark-Wahnefried W. Nutrition and breast cancer. In: CoulstonAM, RockCL, MonsenER, eds. Nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001. 337–55.
  • 9
    Cold S, Hansen K, Overvad K, Rose C. A woman's build and the risk of breast cancer. Eur J Cancer 1998; 34: 1163–74.
  • 10
    Ursin G, Longnecker M, Haile R. A meta-analysis of body mass index and risk of premenopausal breast cancer. Epidemiology 1995; 6: 137–41.
  • 11
    Hunter D, Willett W. Diet, body size, and breast cancer. Epidemiol Rev 1993; 15: 110–32.
  • 12
    Cleary M, Maihle N. The role of body mass index in the relative risk of developing premenopausal versus postmenopausal breast cancer. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1997; 216: 28–43.
  • 13
    Kaaks R. Nutrition, hormones, and breast cancer: is insulin the missing link? Cancer Causes Control 1996; 7: 605–25.
  • 14
    Morimoto L, White E, Chen Z, Chlebowski R, Hays J, Kuller L, Lopez AM, Manson JA, Margolis KL, Muti PC, Stefanick ML, McThiernan A. Obesity, body size, and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer: the Women's Health Initiative (United States). Cancer Causes Control 2002; 13: 741–51.
  • 15
    Thomas H, Reeves G, Key T. Endogenous estrogen and postmenopausal breast cancer: a quantitative review. Cancer Causes Control 1997; 8: 922–8.
  • 16
    Bernstein L, Ross R. Endogenous hormones and breast cancer risk. Epidemiol Rev 1993; 15: 48–65.
  • 17
    Key T, Pike M. The role of oestrogens and progestagens in the epidemiology and prevention of breast cancer. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol 1988; 24: 29–43.
  • 18
    Key TJ, Appleby PN, Reeves GK, Roddam A, Dorgan JF, Longcope C, Stanczyk FZ, Stephenson HE Jr, Falk RT, Miller R, Schatzkin A, Allen DS, et al. Endogenous Hormones and Breast Cancer Collaborative Group. Body mass index, serum sex hormones, and breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women. J Natl Cancer Inst 2003; 95: 1218–26.
  • 19
    Stoll B. Breast cancer: the obesity connection. Br J Cancer 1994; 69: 799–801.
  • 20
    Beral V, Million Women Study Collaborators. Breast cancer and hormone-replacement therapy in the Million Women Study. Lancet 2003; 362: 419–27.
  • 21
    Rossouw JE, Anderson GL, Prentice RL, LaCroix AZ, Kooperberg C, Stefanick ML, Jackson RD, Beresford SA, Howard BV, Johnson KC, Kotchen JM, Ockene J. Writing Group for the Women's Health Initiative investigators. Risks and benefits of estrogen plus progestin in healthy postmenopausal women: principal results from the Women's Health Initiative randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002; 288: 321–33.
  • 22
    Colditz G. Relationship between estrogen levels, use of hormone replacement therapy, and breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 1998; 90: 814–23.
  • 23
    Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and hormonal replacement therapy: collaborative reanalysis of data from 51 epidemiological studies of 52 705 women with breast cancer and 108,411 women without breast cancer. Lancet 1997; 350: 1047–59.
  • 24
    Huang Z, Hankinson S, Colditz G, Stampfer M, Hunter D, Manson J, Hennekens CH, Rosner B, Speizer FE, Willett WC. Dual effects of weight and weight gain on breast cancer risk. JAMA 1997; 278: 1407–11.
  • 25
    Huang Z, Willett W, Colditz G, Hunter D, Manson J, Rosner B, Speizer FE, Hankinson SE. Waist circumference, waist–hip ratio, and risk of breast cancer in the Nurses' Health Study. Am J Epidemiol 1999; 150: 1316–24.
  • 26
    van den Brandt P, Spiegelman D, Yaun S, Adami H, Beeson L, Folsom A, Fraser G, Goldbohm RA, Graham S, Kushi L, Marshall JR, Miller AB, et al. Pooled analysis of prospective cohort studies on height, weight, and breast cancer risk. Am J Epidemiol 2000; 152: 514–27.
  • 27
    Trentham-Dietz A, Newcomb P, Storer B, Longnecker M, Baron J, Greenberg ER, Willett WC. Body size and risk of breast cancer. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 145: 1011–19.
  • 28
    Magnusson C, Baron J, Persson I, Wolk A, Bergström R, Trichopoulous D, Adami HO. Body size in different periods of life and breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women. Int J Cancer 1998; 76: 29–34.
    Direct Link:
  • 29
    Friedenreich C, Courneya K, Bryant H. Case-control study of anthropometric measures and breast cancer risk. Int J Cancer 2002; 99: 445–52.
    Direct Link:
  • 30
    Riboli E, Hunt KJ, Slimani N, Ferrari P, Norat T, Fahey M, Charrondière UR, Hémon B, Casagrande C, Vignat J, Overvad K, Tjønneland A, et al. European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC): study populations and data collection. Public Health Nutr 2002; 5: 1113–24.
  • 31
    Riboli E, Kaaks R. The EPIC project: rationale and study design. Int J Epidemiol 1997; 26 (Suppl 1): S6–13.
  • 32
    Haftenberger M, Lahmann PH, Panico S, Gonzales CA, Seidell JC, Boeing H, Giurdanella MC, Krogh V, Bueno-de-Mesquita HB, Peeters PHM, Skeie G, Hjartåker A, et al. Overweight, obesity and fat distribution in 50- to 64-year-old participants in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Public Health Nutr 2002; 5: 1147–62.
  • 33
    Spencer EA, Appleby PN, Davey GK, Key TJ. Validity of self-reported height and weight in 4808 EPIC-Oxford participants. Public Health Nutr 2002; 5: 561–5.
  • 34
    WHO. Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. Report of a WHO consultation on obesity, Geneva, 3–5 June 1997. Geneva: WHO, 1998.
  • 35
    DerSimonian R, Laird N. Meta-analysis in clinical trials. Control Clin Trials 1986; 7: 177–88.
  • 36
    Hardy RJ, Thompson SG. Detecting and describing heterogeneity in meta-analysis. Stat Med 1998; 17: 841–56.
    Direct Link:
  • 37
    Lawlor DA, Okasha M, Gunnell D, Davey Smith G, Ebrahim S. Associations of adult measures of childhood growth with breast cancer: findings from the British Women's Heart and Healthy Study. Br J Cancer 2003; 89: 81–7.
  • 38
    Kaaks R, Lundin E, Rinaldi S, Manjer J, Biessy C, Soderberg S, Lenner P, Janzon L, Riboli E, Berglund G, Hallmans G. Prospective study of IGF-I, IGF-binding proteins, and breast cancer risk in northern and southern Sweden. Cancer Causes Control 2002; 13: 307–16.
  • 39
    Kaaks R, Van Noord P, Den Tonkelaar I, Peeters P, Riboli E, Grobbee D. Breast-cancer incidence in relation to height, weight and body-fat distribution in the Dutch “DOM” cohort. Int J Cancer 1998; 76: 647–51.
    Direct Link:
  • 40
    Yong L, Brown C, Schatzkin A, Schairer C. Prospective study of relative weight and risk of breast cancer: the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project Follow-up Study, 1979 to 1987–1989. Am J Epidemiol 1996; 143: 985–95.
  • 41
    Lahmann PH, Lissner L, Gullberg B, Olsson H, Berglund G. A prospective study of adiposity and postmenopausal breast cancer risk: the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study. Int J Cancer 2003; 103: 246–52.
    Direct Link:
  • 42
    Bergström A, Pisani P, Tenet V, Wolk A, Adami H. Overweight as an avoidable cause of cancer in Europe. Int J Cancer 2001; 91: 421–30.
    Direct Link:
  • 43
    Folsom A, Kushi LH, Anderson KE, Mink PJ, Olson JE, Hong C-P, Sellers TA, Lazovich D, Prineas RJ. Associations of general and abdominal obesity with multiple health outcomes in older women. Arch Intern Med 2000; 160: 2117–28.
  • 44
    Sonnenschein E, Toniolo P, Terry M, Bruning P, Kato I, Koenig K, Shore RE. Body fat distribution and obesity in pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer. Int J Epidemiol 1999; 28: 1026–31.
  • 45
    Swanson C, Coates RJ, Schoenberg JB, Malone KE, Gammon MD, Stanford JL, Shorr IJ, Potischman NA, Brinton LA. Body size and breast cancer risk among women under age 45 years. Am J Epidemiol 1996; 143: 698–706.
  • 46
    Den Tonkelaar I, Seidell J, Collette H. Body fat distribution in relation to breast cancer in women participating in the DOM-project. Breast Cancer Res Treat 1995; 34: 55–61.
  • 47
    Folsom A, Kaye S, Prineas R, Potter J, Gapstur S, Wallace R. Increased incidence of carcinoma of the breast associated with abdominal adiposity in postmenopausal women. Am J Epidemiol 1990; 131: 794–803.
View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (169K)