Lifetime body size and prostate cancer risk in a population-based case-control study in Sweden.
OBJECTIVE
The role of body size in prostate cancer etiology is unclear and potentially varies by age and disease subtype. We investigated whether body size in childhood and adulthood, including adult weight change, is related to total, low-intermediate-risk, high-risk, and fatal prostate cancer.


METHODS
We used data on 1,499 incident prostate cancer cases and 1,118 population controls in Sweden. Body figure at age 10 was assessed by silhouette drawings. Adult body mass index (BMI) and weight change were based on self-reported height and weight between ages 20 and 70. We estimated odds ratios (ORs) with 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) by unconditional logistic regression.


RESULTS
Height was positively associated with prostate cancer. Overweight/obesity in childhood was associated with a 54 % increased risk of dying from prostate cancer compared to normal weight, whereas a 27 % lower risk was seen in men who were moderately thin (drawing 2) in childhood (P trend = 0.01). Using BMI <22.5 as a reference, we observed inverse associations between BMI 22.5 to <25 at age 20 and all prostate cancer subtypes (ORs in the range 0.72-0.82), and between mean adult BMI 25 to <27.5 and low-intermediate-risk disease (OR 0.75, 95 % CI 0.55-1.02). Moderate adult weight gain increased the risk of disease in men with low BMI at start and in short men.


CONCLUSIONS
Our comprehensive life-course approach revealed no convincing associations between anthropometric measures and prostate cancer risk. However, we found some leads that deserve further investigation, particularly for early-life body size. Our study highlights the importance of the time window of exposure in prostate cancer development.
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, P.O. Box 281, SE-171 77, Stockholm, Sweden, elisabeth.moller@ki.se.
Elisabeth
E
Möller
Hans-Olov
HO
Adami
Lorelei A
LA
Mucci
Cecilia
C
Lundholm
Rino
R
Bellocco
Jan-Erik
JE
Johansson
Henrik
H
Grönberg
Katarina
K
Bälter
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D049628:Body Size; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult