Skip to main content
Key Specialties
Cardiology Diabetology Endocrinology Gastroenterology Geriatrics and Gerontology Gynecology and Obstetrics Hematology Infectious Disease Internal Medicine Nephrology Neurology Oncology Pediatrics Respiratory Medicine Rheumatology Surgery
Congress Coverage
2024 ACC Congress 2023 ESMO Congress 2023 EASD Congress 2023 ERS Congress 2023 ESC Congress
Clinical Collections
Advances in Alzheimer’s

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on medication adherence

LIVE: Thursday 27th June 2024, 18:00-19:30 (CEST)
Join our expert panel to discover why you need to understand the drivers of non-adherence in your patients, and how you can optimize medication adherence in your clinics to drastically improve patient outcomes.
ADVANCED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
Published in: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 1/2017

01-02-2017 | Epidemiology

Body size from birth through adolescence in relation to risk of benign breast disease in young women

Authors: Catherine S. Berkey, Bernard Rosner, Rulla M. Tamimi, Walter C. Willett, Martha Hickey, Adetunji Toriola, A. Lindsay Frazier, Graham A. Colditz

Published in: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment | Issue 1/2017

Login to get access

Abstract

Purpose

Body size, from birth throughout adulthood, is associated with breast cancer risk, but few studies have investigated early-life body size and benign breast disease (BBD), a well-established breast cancer risk factor. We consider whether prenatal factors and size at birth, 10, 18 year, and intervening growth, are related to BBD risk.

Methods

The Growing Up Today Study includes 9032 females who completed questionnaires annually from 1996 to 2001, then 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2013. In 1996, their mothers provided pregnancy-related data. From 2005 to 2013, participants (18 year+) reported whether they had ever been diagnosed with biopsy-confirmed BBD (N = 142 cases).

Results

Girls had greater adiposity (BMI; kg/m2) at 10 year if they were larger at birth, if mother’s pre-pregnancy BMI was higher, or if gestational weight gain was greater (all p < .01). Maternal height was (positively) associated (p < .05) with adolescent peak height growth velocity (PHV; in./year). Greater 10 year adiposity was associated with lower PHV and less height growth 10–18 year (both p < .01). Adiposity at 10 year was inversely associated with BBD (OR 0.83/(kg/m2), p < .01) as was increasing adiposity 10–18 year (OR 0.85/(kg/m2), p = .01). In a separate model, 10 year height (OR 1.13/in., p = .02) and height growth 10–18 year (OR 1.19/in.; p < .01) were positively associated. PHV was similarly positively associated (OR 2.58, p = .01, fastest versus slowest growth quartiles). In a multivariable model of BBD risk, gestational weight gain (daughters at highest risk if <20 lb gained), PHV (slowest growing girls at lowest risk), age 10 year height (positive), and BMI (inverse) were the most critical childhood risk factors (each p < .05).

Conclusions

Body size factors from pregnancy through adolescence were independently associated with BBD risk in young women.
Literature
1.
Colditz GA, Frazier AL (1995) Models of breast cancer show that risk is set by events of early life: prevention efforts must shift focus. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 4:567–571PubMed
2.
Buell P (1973) Changing incidence of breast cancer in Japanese-American women. J Natl Cancer Inst 51:1479–1483PubMed
3.
Land CE, Tokunaga M, Koyama K, Soda M, Preston DL, Nishimori I et al (2003) Incidence of female breast cancer among atomic bomb survivors, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1950–1990. Radiat Res 160:707–717CrossRefPubMed
4.
Ziegler RG, Hoover RN, Pike MC, Hildesheim A, Nomura AM, West DW et al (1993) Migration patterns and breast cancer risk in Asian-American women. J Natl Cancer Inst 85:1819–1827CrossRefPubMed
5.
Berkey CS, Frazier AL, Gardner JD, Colditz GA (1999) Adolescence and breast carcinoma risk. Cancer 85:2400–2409CrossRefPubMed
6.
7.
Trichopoulos D (1990) Hypothesis: does breast cancer originate in utero? Lancet 355:939–940CrossRef
8.
Hilakivi-Clarke L, Clarke R, Lippman ME (1994) Perinatal factors increase breast cancer risk. Breast Cancer Res Treat 31:273–284CrossRefPubMed
9.
10.
Michels KB, Xue F (2006) Role of birthweight in the etiology of breast cancer. Int J Cancer 119:2007–2025CrossRefPubMed
11.
Xue F, Michels KB (2007) Intrauterine factors and risk of breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of current evidence. Lancet Oncol 8:1088–1100CrossRefPubMed
12.
Wilson KM, Willett WC, Michels KB (2011) Mothers’ pre-pregnancy BMI and weight gain during pregnancy and risk of breast cancer in daughters. Breast Cancer Res Treat 130:273–279CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
13.
Ruder EH, Dorgan JF, Kranz S, Kris-Etherton PM, Hartman TJ (2008) Examining breast cancer growth and lifestyle risk factors: early life, childhood, and adolescence. Clin Breast Cancer 8:334–342CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
14.
Baer HJ, Tworoger SS, Hankinson SE, Willett WC (2010) Body fatness at young ages and risk of breast cancer throughout life. AJE 171:1183–1194CrossRef
15.
Rosner B, Eliassen AH, Toriola AT, Chen W, Hankinson S, Willett W, Berkey CS, Colditz G (2017) Weight and weight changes in early adulthood and later breast cancer risk.  International Journal of Cancer (in press)
16.
Ahlgren M, Melbye M, Wohlfahrt J, Sorensen TI (2004) Growth patterns and the risk of breast cancer in women. NEJM 351:1619–1626CrossRefPubMed
17.
De Stavola BL, dos Santos Silva I, McCormack V, Hardy RJ, Kuh DJ, Wadsworth ME (2004) Childhood growth and breast cancer. Am J Epidemiol 159:671–682CrossRefPubMed
18.
Dyrstad W, Yan Y, Fowler A, Colditz G (2015) Breast cancer risk associated with benign breast disease: systematic review and meta-analysis. Breast Cancer Res Treat 149:569–575CrossRefPubMed
19.
Baer H, Schnitt SJ, Connoly JL, Byrne C, Willett WC, Rosner B, Colditz GA (2005) Early life factors and incidence of proliferative benign breast disease. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14:2889–2897CrossRefPubMed
20.
Berkey CS, Rosner B, Willett WC, Tamimi RM, Frazier AL, Colditz GA (2015) Prenatal factors and infant feeding in relation to risk of BBD in young women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 154:573–582CrossRefPubMed
21.
Berkey CS, Willett WC, Frazier AL, Rosner B, Tamimi RM, Colditz GA (2011) Prospective study of growth and development in older girls and risk of benign breast disease in young women. Cancer 117:1612–1620CrossRefPubMed
22.
Colditz GA, Hankinson SE (2005) The Nurses’ Health Study: lifestyle and health among women. Nat Rev Cancer 5:388–396CrossRefPubMed
23.
Berkey CS, Rockett HRH, Gillman MW, Colditz GA (2003) One-year changes in activity and in inactivity among 10- to 15-year old boys and girls. Relationship to change in BMI. Pediatrics 111:836–843CrossRefPubMed
24.
Neinstein LS (1999) Breast disease in adolescents and young women. Pediatr Clin North Am 46:607–629CrossRefPubMed
25.
Su X, Colditz GA, Willett WC, Collins LC, Schnitt SJ, Connolly JL et al (2010) Genetic variation and circulating levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in relation to risk of proliferative benign breast disease. Int J Cancer 126:180–190CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
26.
Tomeo CA, Rich-Edwards JW, Michels KB, Berkey CS, Hunter DJ, Frazier AL, Willett WC, Buka SL (1999) Reproducibility and validity of maternal recall of pregnancy-related events. Epidemiology 10:774–777CrossRefPubMed
27.
Troy LM, Michels KB, Hunter DJ, Spiegelman D, Manson JE, Colditz GA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC (1996) Self-reported birthweight and history of having been breastfed among younger women: an assessment of validity. Int J Epidemiol 25:122–127CrossRefPubMed
28.
McClure CK, Bodnar LM, Ness R, Catov JM (2011) Accuracy of maternal recall of gestational weight gain 4–12 years after delivery. Obesity (Silver Spring) 19:1047–1053CrossRef
29.
Strauss RS (1999) Comparison of measured and self-reported weight and height in a cross-sectional sample of young adolescents. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 23:904–908CrossRefPubMed
30.
Goodman E, Hinden BR, Khandelwal S (2000) Accuracy of teen and parental reports of obesity and body mass index. Pediatrics 106:52–58CrossRefPubMed
31.
Stunkard AJ, Sorensen T, Schulsinger F (1983) Use of the Danish Adoption Register for the study of obesity and thinness. In: Kety SS, Rowland LP, Sidman RL et al (eds) The genetics of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Raven Press, New York, pp 115–120
32.
Must A, Willett WC, Dietz WH (1993) Remote recall of childhood height, weight, and body build by elderly subjects. Am J Epidemiol 138:56–64PubMed
33.
Berkey CS, Gardner JD, Frazier AL, Colditz GA (2000) Relation of childhood diet and body size to menarche and adolescent growth in girls. Am J Epidemiol 152:446–452CrossRefPubMed
34.
Berkey CS, Wang X, Dockery DW, Ferris BG Jr (1994) Adolescent height growth in a US population. Ann Hum Biol 21:435–442CrossRefPubMed
35.
Bock RD, Thissen D (1980) Statistical problems of fitting individual growth curves. In: Johnston FE, Roche AF, Susanne C (eds) Human physical growth & maturation: methodologies and factors. Plenum Press, London, pp 265–290CrossRef
36.
SAS Institute Inc. (1997) SAS/STAT Software: changes and enhancements through Release 6.12. Proc Logist. SAS Institute Inc., Cary
37.
Berkey CS, Tamimi RM, Willett WC, Rosner B, Frazier AL, Colditz GA (2014) Adolescent physical activity and inactivity: a prospective study of risk of benign breast disease in young women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 146:611–618CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
38.
Gillman MW, Rifas-Shiman S, Berkey CS, Field AE, Colditz GA (2003) Maternal gestational diabetes, birth weight, and adolescent obesity. Pediatrics 111:e221–e226CrossRefPubMed
39.
Stuebe AM, Forman MR, Michels KB (2009) Maternal recalled gestational weight gain, pre-pregnancy BMI, and obesity in daughter. Int J Obes (London) 33:743–752CrossRef
40.
Roberts CT, Brown AL, Graham DE, Seelig S, Berry S, Gabbay KH, Rechler MM (1986) Growth hormone regulates the abundance of insulin-like growth factor 1 RNA in adult rat liver. J Biol Chem 261:10025–10028PubMed
41.
Calle EE, Kaaks R (2004) Overweight, obesity and cancer: epidemiological evidence and proposed mechanisms. Nat Rev Cancer 4:579–591CrossRefPubMed
42.
Cousminer DL, Berry DJ, Timpson NJ, Ang W, Thiering E et al (for the Early Growth Genetics Consortium) (2013) Genome-wide association and longitudinal analyses reveal genetic loci linking pubertal height growth, pubertal timing and childhood adiposity. Hum Mol Genet 22:2735–2747
43.
Bertrand KA, Baer HJ, Orav EJ, Klifa C et al (2015) Body fatness during childhood and adolescence and breast density in young women: a prospective analysis. Breast Cancer Res 17:95CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
44.
Anderson ZJ, Baker JL, Bihrmann K, Vejborg I, Sorensen TI, Lynge E (2014) Birth weight, childhood body mass index, and height in relation to mammographic density and breast cancer: a register-based cohort study. Breast Cancer Res 16:R4CrossRef
45.
Warrington NM, Howe LD, Paternoster LO, Kaakinen M, Herrala S et al (2015) A genome-wide association study of body mass index across early life and childhood. Int J Epidemiol 44:700–712CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
46.
Lof M, Hilakivi-Clarke L, Sandin SS, de Assis S, Yu W, Weiderpass E (2009) Dietary fat intake and gestational weight gain in relation to estradiol and progesterone plasma levels during pregnancy: a longitudinal study in Swedish women. BMC Womens Health 9:10CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
47.
Ba Y, Yu H, Geng X, Zhu C, Zhu Q, Zheng T, Ma S, Wang G, Li Z, Zhang Y (2011) Relationship of folate, vitamin B12 and methylation of insulin-like growth factor-II in maternal and cord blood. Eur J Clin Nutr 65:480–485CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral
48.
Gao C, Patel CJ, Michailidou K, Peters U, Gong J, Schildkraut J et al (2016) Mendelian randomization study of adiposity-related traits and risk of breast, ovarian, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer. Int J Epidemiol pii:dyw129 (Epub ahead of print)
49.
Willett WC, Blot WJ, Colditz GA, Folsom AR, Henderson BE, Stampfer MJ (2007) Merging and emerging cohorts: not worth the wait. Nature 445:257–258CrossRefPubMed
Metadata
Title
Body size from birth through adolescence in relation to risk of benign breast disease in young women
Authors
Catherine S. Berkey
Bernard Rosner
Rulla M. Tamimi
Walter C. Willett
Martha Hickey
Adetunji Toriola
A. Lindsay Frazier
Graham A. Colditz
Publication date
01-02-2017
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment / Issue 1/2017
Print ISSN: 0167-6806
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7217
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-016-4084-5

Other articles of this Issue 1/2017

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 1/2017 Go to the issue

Epidemiology

Prognostic factors in early breast cancer associated with body mass index, physical functioning, physical activity, and comorbidity: data from a nationwide Danish cohort

Letter to the Editor

Retesting BRCA1/BRCA2 mutation negative male breast cancer patients using next generation sequencing technologies

Epidemiology

Associations of obesity and physical activity with serum and intratumoral sex steroid hormone levels among postmenopausal women with breast cancer: analysis of paired serum and tumor tissue samples

Brief Report

Multicenter analysis of neoadjuvant docetaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer

Epidemiology

Brain metastasis in patients with metastatic breast cancer in the real world: a single-institution, retrospective review of 12-year follow-up

Preclinical study

Assessment of an APOBEC3B truncating mutation, c.783delG, in patients with breast cancer
Webinar | 19-02-2024 | 17:30 (CET)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer

Watch now

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are novel agents that have shown promise across multiple tumor types. Explore the current landscape of ADCs in breast and lung cancer with our experts, and gain insights into the mechanism of action, key clinical trials data, existing challenges, and future directions.

Dr. Véronique Diéras
Prof. Fabrice Barlesi
Developed by: Springer Medicine
Image Credits