Taller women have a higher risk of ovarian cancer, new study found.
The fifth leading cause of cancer death in women, ovarian cancer is called "silent killer" because it is difficult to realize before it reached a late stage.
According to the latest research from the journal PLos Medicine, height as well as weight influenced to increase the chances of developing the disease. They investigated 47 epidemiological studies in 14 countries, including 25,175 women suffering from ovarian cancer and 81,311 women who do not.
Lead researcher Prof Valerie Beral of the Oxford University Epidemiology Unit told the BBC, that height becomes a risk factor of ovarian cancer. Even though taking account of other risk factors-age, meopausal status, smoking, alcohol consumption, family history and taking of oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy.
The findings are important in high income countries, because the average height and weight of women in the countries has been increasing.
However, Dr Paul Pharoah, reader in cancer epidemiology at the University of Cambridge relieve by commenting on the study. "If we compare a woman who is 5ft tall with a woman is 5th 6in tall, there is a relative difference in ovarian risk of 23%. But the absolute risk is small. The shorter woman will have a lifetime risk about 16-in-a-1000, which increases to 20-in-a-1000 for the taller woman. A similar difference in absolute risk would be seen when comparing a slim woman with a body mass index of 20 to a slightly overweight woman with a body mass index of 30."
Sarah Williams, health information officer at Cancer Research UK added, "Women can reduce their risk of this and many other diseases by keeping to a healthy weight. For women trying to lose weight, the best method is to eat healthily, eat smaller amount and be more physically active."
