Tall people’s cancer risk high due to more cells

TALLER people have a higher risk of cancer “hard wired” into them partly because they have more cells for the disease to target, a study claimed yesterday.

Researchers in the United States examined populations across three continents and found that the risk of contracting cancer for both men and women increased 10 percent for every 10 centimeters in height.

Cancer develops when the body’s normal controls on cell growth stop working, leading to the runaway creation of abnormal cells that manifests as tumors.

A study published in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B suggests that the risk of several types of cancer is likely higher in taller humans simply because they have more cells, and therefore more opportunities for those cells to become cancerous.

“This means that this extra risk is ‘hard wired’ and cannot in any obvious way be reduced,” lead study author Leonard Nunney of the University of California Riverside said.

It is thought that some larger mammals such as elephants and giraffes — whose bodies have a far greater number of cells than smaller creatures — have evolved additional safeguards against cancer.

But there is no evidence that this works the same in individuals within a single species, such as humans.

Average height varies among regions but in the US, men are on average 176cm tall, and women 162cm.

While scientists have known for a while that taller people tend to be at higher cancer risk, Nunney’s study into populations in the US, Europe and South Korea found that this may be because they have more cells in which something can go wrong.

In particular, taller people were shown to be at higher risk of melanoma because they have a higher rate of cell division — and, simply, more skin — than people of average height.