Height, weight and cancer of the oesophagus and stomach: a follow-up studyin Norway

Epidemiological studies have suggested that socioeconomic conditions, inclu ding dietary factors, can affect the risk of several gastric cancers. Anthr opometric indices, such as body weight and adult height, have been consider ed as measurements of prevailing diet and nutrition, respectively, in early life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between body mass and height and the risk of cancer of the oesophagus and stomach. The analysis was based on data from a national Norwegian screening programm e for tuberculosis, which ran from 1963 to 1975, screening more than 1,100, 000 individuals, aged 30-69 years at the time of examination. The participa nts were followed until December 1989. Body weight (expressed as Quetelet's index (QI)) and height records were linked with vital status data from Sta tistics Norway and the Cancer Registry of Norway. Individuals in the first quintile of height appear to have an increased risk of oesophageal cancer i n both sexes. Low QI was found to increase the risk for oesophageal squamou s cell carcinoma, whereas high QI was linked to an elevated risk of oesopha geal adenocarcinoma. The analysis reveals a relationship between low QI and the risk of stomach cancer. There were no associations between stomach can cer and height. These associations indicate that prevailing and early life conditions could play a role in later cancer development; they support the hypothesis that anthropometric indices are important as markers for the ris k of oesophageal cancer and, to some extent, for cancer of the stomach. (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.