Abstract
The intrauterine and early life environments have been linked to the etiology of breast cancer in prior studies. We prospectively examined whether maternal and newborn anthropometric factors as reported by the mother are related to an increased incidence of adult breast cancer in the daughter. We used data from 35,133 mother-daughter dyads of the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) II and the Nurses’ Mothers’ Cohort Study. In 2001, living mothers of NHS II participants who were free of cancer completed a questionnaire on their pregnancy with the nurse and their nurse daughter’s early life experience. During 403,786 years of follow-up, 865 daughters developed incident cases of invasive breast cancer. Nurses with a birthweight of ≥4000 g had a 32% greater risk for breast cancer (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1.32, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–1.71, p-trend = 0.09) compared with those with birthweights of 3000–3499 g. Higher birth length tended to increase risk of premenopausal breast cancer (p for trend = 0.05). We further noted a modest U-shaped relation between maternal weight gain during pregnancy and premenopausal breast cancer incidence in the daughter. Fetal growth may contribute to shaping later life risk for breast cancer, especially prior to menopause.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with an estimated 1.67 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 20121
We used data from the prospective Nurses’ Mothers’ Cohort Study to explore the relation of anthropometric variables in newborns including birthweight and birth length to their risk of developing breast cancer in adulthood; we examined whether maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), height, and weight gain during pregnancy
A high birthweight was associated with a greater incidence of breast cancer later in life
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women worldwide, with an estimated 1.67 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 20121. With the global epidemic of obesity maternal body mass prior to and during pregnancy has substantially increased during the past couple of decades, with 39% of women with normal, 59% with overweight, and 56% with obese prepregnancy BMI exceeding the current U.S Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations for gestational weight gain[9].The implications of these rapidly changing intrauterine conditions for the daughters’ future breast cancer risk need to be investigated. We used data from the prospective Nurses’ Mothers’ Cohort Study to explore the relation of anthropometric variables in newborns including birthweight and birth length to their risk of developing breast cancer in adulthood; we examined whether maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, height, and weight gain during pregnancy. ≥4000 g or percentages and are standardized to the age distribution of the study population (except age)
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