Height May Boost Prostate Cancer Risk, Study Suggests

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"We do not believe that height should interfere with preventive or clinical decisions in managing prostate cancer," Zuccolo said. "However, although not yet directly transferrable to medical practice, results from this research are of great scientific interest, especially given that so little is known of preventable causes of prostate cancer."

Dr. Anthony D'Amico, chief of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, said the study findings may be due to chance and not represent a real association.

"When you do a study like this, where you look at a very common attribute like height, eye color or skin color, and then you look at a very common disease like prostate cancer, you can find association that may just be by chance," he said.

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There may be an association between height and a high-grade prostate cancer, D'Amico added. "But that association should not be taken to mean that if you are tall that there is something about being tall and getting high-grade prostate cancer. It could simply be that being tall is a surrogate for something else biological, which may be what is causing the effect."

"I don't think that this study convinces me, or makes me conclude that height in and of itself is a risk factor, and we should start screening earlier in men who are above a certain height," he said.

Dr. Stephen Freedland, an associate professor of urology and pathology and director of outcomes and translational research at the Duke Prostate Center at Duke University Medical Center, thinks other risk factors for prostate cancer are much more important than height.

"This is something I'd hate to see people get all worried about," he said. "If you eat right, take care of yourself, prevent yourself from being obese, I think you are doing the best you can. Everyone, short or tall, should be checked regularly."

More information

Learn more about prostate cancer from the American Cancer Society.

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