Birth weight and risk of breast cancer in a cohort of 106,504 women
Open Access
- 12 September 2003
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in International Journal of Cancer
- Vol. 107 (6), 997-1000
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.11481
Abstract
The possible association between prenatal factors and breast cancer has been discussed for more than a decade. Birth weight has been used commonly as a proxy measure for intrauterine growth. Whereas some previous studies have found support for an association between birth weight and breast cancer, others have been inconclusive or found no association. We investigated the relationship between birth weight and risk of female breast cancer in a cohort of 106,504 Danish women. Birth weights were obtained from school health records on girls born between 1930–1975. Information on breast cancer came from linking the cohort with the Danish Cancer Registry and the Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Groups Registry. A total of 2,334 cases of primary breast cancer were diagnosed in the cohort during 3,255,549 person‐years of follow‐up among women with birth weight between 500–6,000 g. Of these, 922 (40%) were diagnosed with primary breast cancer at the age of 50 years or older. A significant association between birth weight and breast cancer was found equivalent to an increase in risk of 9% per 1,000 g increase in birth weight (95% CI 2–17). The increase was observed for all age groups, representing both pre‐ and post‐menopausal women, and irrespective of tumor characteristics. Adjustment for age at first birth and parity did not influence the results. Birth weight is positively associated with risk of breast cancer, indicating that prenatal factors are important in the etiology of breast cancer.Funding Information
- Department of the US Army
- Danish Cancer Society
- Danish National Research Foundation
- Dagmar Marshall Foundation
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- Birth characteristics and breast cancer risk: A study among like‐sexed twinsInternational Journal of Cancer, 2001
- Maternal factors and breast cancer risk among young womenPaediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 1998
- Medical Record Validation of Maternally Reported Birth Characteristics and Pregnancy-related Events: A Report from the Children's Cancer GroupAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 1997
- Intrauterine Environment and Breast Cancer Risk in Women: A Population-Based StudyJNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1997
- Birthweight as a risk factor for breast cancerThe Lancet, 1996
- Perinatal Factors and Risk of Breast CancerEpidemiology, 1996
- Dose-Response and Trend Analysis in EpidemiologyEpidemiology, 1995
- Evidence of prenatal influences on breast cancer riskThe Lancet, 1992
- Tobacco Smoking, Pregnancy Estrogens, and Birth WeightEpidemiology, 1990
- Hypothesis: does breast cancer originate in utero?The Lancet, 1990