Birth weight, adult body size, and risk of colorectal cancer

Le Su; Michael Hendryx; Ming Li; Margaret S Pichardo; Su Yon Jung; Dorothy S Lane; Rowan Chlebowski; Yangbo Sun; Chao Li; Juhua Luo

doi:10.1016/j.canep.2023.102407

Birth weight, adult body size, and risk of colorectal cancer

Cancer Epidemiol. 2023 Aug:85:102407. doi: 10.1016/j.canep.2023.102407. Epub 2023 Jul 4.

Authors

Le Su¹, Michael Hendryx², Ming Li³, Margaret S Pichardo⁴, Su Yon Jung⁵, Dorothy S Lane⁶, Rowan Chlebowski⁷, Yangbo Sun⁸, Chao Li⁹, Juhua Luo³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA. Electronic address: lesu@iu.edu.
² Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA.
⁴ Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
⁵ Department of Translational Sciences Section, School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, NY, USA.
⁷ Department of Medical Oncology, The Lundquist Institute, Torrance, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
⁹ Division of Epidemiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.

PMID: 37413805
DOI: 10.1016/j.canep.2023.102407

Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that birth weight may be associated with colorectal cancer (CRC) risk later in life. Whether the association is mediated by adult body size remains unexamined.

Method: Cox proportional hazards models (Hazard Ratio (HR) and 95 % Confidence Intervals (CI)) were used to evaluate the association between self-reported birth weight (<6 lbs, 6-<8 lbs, ≥8 lbs) and CRC risk among 70,397 postmenopausal women from the Women's Health Initiative. Further, we assessed whether this association was mediated by adult body size using multiple mediation analyses.

Results: Compared with birth weights of 6-< 8 lbs, birth weight ≥ 8 lbs was associated with higher CRC risk in postmenopausal women (HR = 1.31, 95 % CI 1.16-1.48). This association was significantly mediated by adult height (proportion mediated =11.4 %), weight (11.2 %), waist circumference (10.9 %), and body mass index at baseline (4.0 %). The joint effect of adult height and weight explained 21.6 % of this positive association.

Conclusion: Our data support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment and fetal development may be related to the risk of developing CRC later in life. While adult body size partially explains this association, further investigation is required to identify other factors that mediate the link between birth weight and CRC.

Keywords: Birth weight; Body mass index; Body size; Colorectal cancer.

MeSH terms

Adult
Birth Weight
Body Mass Index
Body Size
Body Weight
Colorectal Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Colorectal Neoplasms* / etiology
Female
Humans
Proportional Hazards Models
Prospective Studies
Risk Factors