The development of certain type of cancer may be traced to the birth of person; the weight when he or she was born. Recent research suggests that bigger babies seem to have a greater risk of developing certain cancers as adults.
Dr. Valeria A. McCormack from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in London, UK, and colleagues used Sweden's Uppsala Birth Cohort Study to investigate the relationship of birth characteristics with overall cancer rates and rates for cancers of specific sites in the body.
The study revealed that the higher birth weight was associated with a 13 percent increase in the rate of cancers of the digestive tract, and a 17 percent increase in the rate of blood cancers. Larger birth size was also associated with an increased rate of all cancers combined, excluding those involving the reproductive system.
Higher birth weight was associated with increased rates of breast cancer in women under age 50. In contrast, women with higher birth weight had only about half the rate of endometrial cancer compared to women with lower birth weight.
Though the findings are not universal across all cancer sites, they are particular in just few sites. Furthermore, the study advocates that the birth size for gestational age is unlikely to be a risk factor for adult disease in itself, but may be a marker for some aspects of the fetal environment that are related to risk.
