A recent study links greater height, but not obesity and abdominal fat, to the occurrence of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in women.

Researchers under the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) assessed the physical proportions of 371,983 cancer-free individuals. Over 8.5 years, 1,219 of those individuals were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma (610 women and 609 men).

The investigators estimated the impact of height, obesity (weight, body mass index), and abdominal fat (waist-to-hip ratio, waist or hip circumference) on the risk of developing the cancers. They found that both taller women and heavier men are at a higher risk for developing multiple myeloma.  Taller women also show an elevated risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Women with a higher body mass index exhibited a greater risk for developing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, but no such correlation was found in men.

Previous studies have suggested that obesity is positively correlated with the occurrence of multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This is the first study to show that height may also be a consideration. Further research will explore whether sitting height, but not leg length, correlates to a higher incidence of the two cancers.

The original article may be accessed at heamatologica.