title: Associations between childhood height and morphologically different variants of melanoma in adulthood.
abstract: Melanoma subtypes have different aetiological characteristics. Child height is positively associated with adult melanoma; however, a clarification of associations with specific melanoma variants is necessary for an improved understanding of risk factors underlying the histologic entities. This study investigated associations between childhood height and future development of cutaneous melanoma variants.
  
  
  
  A cohort study of 316,193 individuals from the Copenhagen School Health Records Register, with measured heights at ages 7-13 years who were born from 1930 to 1989. Melanoma cases were identified via linkage to the national Danish Cancer Registry and subdivided into subtypes. Cox proportional hazards regressions were performed.
  
  
  
  A total of 2223 cases of melanoma distributed as 60% superficial spreading melanoma (SSM), 27.5% melanoma not otherwise specified (NOS), 8.5% nodular melanoma (NM), and 2% lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM). The remaining rare melanoma forms were not analysed. Childhood height was positively and significantly associated with SSM, melanoma NOS, and NM, but not LMM, in adulthood. Per height z-score at age 13 years, the hazard ratios were 1.20 (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.13-1.27) for SSM, 1.19 (95% CI: 1.09-1.29) for melanoma NOS, and 1.21 (95% CI: 1.04-1.41) for NM. Further, growth patterns were linked to the melanoma variants with persistently tall children having an increased risk of developing SSM, melanoma NOS, or NM.
  
  
  
  Childhood height is positively associated with the majority of the melanoma variants. These results suggest that the underlying processes contributing to childhood height and growth patterns interconnect early-life events with the predisposition to melanomagenesis in adulthood.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kathrine Damm
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Meyle
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamborg
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University Hospital Herlev, Herlev, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lisbet Rosenkrantz
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Hölmich
authors.affiliation: Institute of Preventive Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, The Capital Region, Copenhagen, Denmark; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, Section on Metabolic Genetics, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: Jennifer.lyn.baker@regionh.dk.
authors.forename: Jennifer Lyn
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D001827:Body Height; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018327:Hutchinson's Melanotic Freckle / Q000473:pathology*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012307:Risk Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Body height; Child; Cohort studies; Melanoma; Neoplasms by histologic type