Size, Shape of a Woman's Hips May Affect Daughter's Risk of Breast Cancer

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services news release, 6,370 women were studied by an international group of researchers to find that those who had wide hips had a greater chance of their daughter's having breast cancer.

A study done on 6,370 Finnish women found that breast cancer rates were three times higher to those women whose mothers had wider hips than most, and seven time higher to women whose mothers hips were wider and had more than one child already. The study showed that the breast cancer risk was 2.5 times higher for the daughters of the women whose widest distance was more than three centimeters greater than the distance at the front.

It also was discovered by American, British and Finnish researchers, that women were more likely to develop breast cancer if the mother's widest distance between the wing like structures at the top of the hip bone was more than 11.8 inches. It was also discovered that if the structures were rounded off, the risk of getting breast cancer was greater.

Noted in the study, wide, round hips indicate high sex hormone concentration in mothers, which may boost the breast cancer risk in their offspring. The researchers suggested that the breast cancer risk was increased in the first trimester of pregnancy when the embryo is developing breast tissue and exposed to the mother's circulating sex hormones.

The researchers all concluded and noted that "Mothers whose daughters developed breast cancer were of similar height to the other mothers," they also continued with "This suggests that they had similar nutrition through childhood. Our findings do not therefore indicate that good nutrition through childhood is linked to breast cancer in the next generation. But they do show that the pubertal growth spurt of girls, which reflects nutrition, is strongly associated with the risk of breast cancer in their daughters."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2003 statistics show that 181,646 women and 1,826 men were diagnosed with breast cancer. In addition, 41,619 women and 379 men died from the disease. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women aside from non-melanoma skin cancer. Breast cancer itself is the number one cause of death in Hispanic women and the second most common cause of death in white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaska Native women.

SOURCE : Woman's Hips Might Indicate Daughter's Breast Cancer Risk
http://www.womenshealth.gov/news/english/608955.htm

SOURCE : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Breast Cancer Statistics
http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/breast/statistics/