RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF BIRTH-WEIGHT AND PROSTATE-CANCER IN THE HEALTH-PROFESSIONALS FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

The authors retrospectively evaluated the relation between birth weigh t and prostate cancer (1986-1994) among 21,140 men of the Health Profe ssionals Follow-up Study who reported in 1994 their weight at birth. N o relation between birth weight and prostate cancer (n = 545) was obse rved in multivariate logistic models. For high stage/grade tumors (n = 213), compared with birth weights <7.0 Ibs (<3,175 g), the relative r isks were 1.20 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-1.83) for 8.5-9.9 Ib s (3,855.6-4,490.6 g) and 1.30 (95% CI 0.80-2.10) for greater than or equal to 10 Ibs (greater than or equal to 4,536 g). These findings do not support an overall association between birth weight and prostate c ancer incidence, but the possibility of a modest positive association between birth weight and high stage/grade prostatic cancer cannot be e xcluded.