Sci. & Tech.
Mother's hips could raise your breast cancer risk

London (PTI): You can't avoid breast cancer. But, you can find out if you're at risk for the disease -- it's simple, just check out your mother's measurements.

Yes, according to a study by scientists in Britain, women whose mothers have wide and round hips could be seven times more likely to develop breast cancer, the 'Daily Mail' reported here on Tuesday.

"A women's hip size is a marker of her oestrogen production. Wide, round hips represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer," lead researcher Prof David Barker of Southampton University said.

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after studying the health of over 6,000 Finnish women born from 1934 to 1944 and comparing it with information on their mothers' hip size. The measurement used was the intercristal diameter -- the distance from hip bone to hip bone.

According to the findings, a woman's risk of breast cancer went up by 60 per cent if her mother's hips were more than 30 cm across. The risk increased with hip size and with the length of time the baby was in the womb.

Moreover, the researchers found that babies carried by wider-hipped women for the full 40 weeks of gestation or longer were 3.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer.

And, adding the existence of elder siblings into the equation took the risk to more than seven-fold.

However, Prof Barker is mulling the development of a 'wonder drug' against the disease. "Breast cancer is the most feared cancer among women but how to prevent it has got completely stuck. I don't see there are huge barriers into translating this into prevention."

The findings have been published in latest edition of the 'American Journal of Human Biology'.

Sci. & Tech.

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