A new study suggests that adults with taller heights are more likely to develop colon polyps or colorectal cancer than shorter individuals. In addition, the condition observed in the taller population tends to become malignant later after the diagnosis.
Colorectal Cancer and Height
Colorectal cancer had been theorized in previous studies to correlate with a person's height. However, the findings were based on inconsistent data that led to conflicting results.
Most of the research that discussed the possible association of height with colon cancer also missed the opportunity to elaborate on the risk of precancerous colon polyps or adenomas.
Johns Hopkins Medicine's hepatology and gastroenterology expert Gerard Mullin, the lead author of the new study, explained that their recent work is the largest research ever on the subject. The paper confirms how taller heights serve as a high-risk factor of cancer and shows the reason why specialists should consider the same factor during recommendations and evaluations for colorectal cancer screenings, he continued.
The team emphasized that the study does not lean to prove causal effect, in which the population with taller stature is a dominant or major factor alongside genetics and age. Instead, the latest research reinforces the aspects associated with taller stature, and the risk of colorectal cancer observed in previous studies long before.
Among the possible reasons for the height and the particular cancer is due to the organ's size, said the study's first co-author Elinor Zhou. The mutations that often lead to a malignant condition are induced by the active proliferation in organs of the population with higher heights, she adds.
Taller Population More Likely to Develop Colorectal Cancer and Adenoma
The new study on colorectal cancer was made possible through the help of 47 international papers that involved a total of more than 280,600 colorectal cancer cases as well as over 14,100 colorectal adenoma cases.
An original data collected by the Johns Hopkins Colon Biofilm involved over 1,400 adult participants who are also under outpatient colonoscopies. This separate research focuses on the correlation between cancer and biofilm bacterias stuck on the walls of the colon organ.
According to a report by Futurity, the study concluded that the tallest people among the analyzed population have a higher risk of colorectal cancer development or 24 percent higher chances of developing the condition than the shortest from the group.
In addition, the authors discovered that each increase of height by ten centimeters, or about four inches, reflects a 14 percent increase of risk for colorectal cancer development and six percent of adenoma development.
The data from the study were curated based on the realistic percentage of colorectal cancer's other known risk factors, such as socioeconomic, demography, and behavior. On the other hand, non-modifiable risk factors include the family history of colorectal cancer and adenomas, personal history of chronic bowel inflammation, and age.
This March, the National Colorectal Cancer Awareness is being celebrated, an event in which the knowledge and early prevention of colorectal cancer are being promoted for the greater population. Part of the initiative's goal is to decrease the colorectal cancer-related death rate in the next 25 years by 50 percent.
Further studies are required to identify the specific taller populations at risk of the condition, Zhou said. The study was published in the journal Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers and Prevention, titled "Adult-Attained Height and Colorectal Cancer Risk: A Cohort Study, Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis."
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