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Background: The potential influence of measured body weight and height on keratinocyte skin cancer risk has scarcely been studied. Some evidence indicates melanoma risk increases as self-reported height increases, but an association with body mass index (BMI) is less certain., Methods: We measured body weight and height of 1171 Australian men and women in a community-based skin cancer study in Queensland and prospectively examined the association of BMI, body surface area (BSA) and height and incidence of basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and melanoma while accounting for skin phenotype, sun exposure, clinical/cutaneous signs of chronic photodamage and other risk factors., Results: During 16 years of follow-up, 334 and 188 participants newly developed BCC and SCC, respectively; 28 participants were diagnosed with primary melanoma. BMI and BSA were unrelated to skin cancer incidence. After full adjustment, height was significantly associated with SCC development in men (relative risk (RR)=1.66; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.11-2.48, for ≥175cm vs ≤171cm, Ptrend=0.017), and BCC in women (Ptrend=0.043). Melanoma in men, was similarly positively associated with height (RR per 5cm increment=1.55; 95%CI 0.97-2.47, P=0.067) though not significantly., Conclusion: This study shows that after adjusting for sun exposure tall stature may be a risk factor for the most common types of skin cancer BCC, SCC, and melanoma, while body mass and surface area appear unrelated to risk., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Body weight and body mass index (BMI) are positively related to risk of colon cancer in men, whereas weak or no associations exist in women. This discrepancy may be related to differences in fat distribution between sexes or to the use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in women., Methods: We used multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards models to examine the association between anthropometric measures and risks of colon and rectal cancer among 368 277 men and women who were free of cancer at baseline from nine countries of the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition. All statistical tests were two-sided., Results: During 6.1 years of follow-up, we identified 984 and 586 patients with colon and rectal cancer, respectively. Body weight and BMI were statistically significantly associated with colon cancer risk in men (highest versus lowest quintile of BMI, relative risk [RR] = 1.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.12 to 2.15; P(trend) = .006) but not in women. In contrast, comparisons of the highest to the lowest quintile showed that several anthropometric measures, including waist circumference (men, RR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.93; P(trend) = .001; women, RR = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.08 to 2.03; P(trend) = .008), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR; men, RR = 1.51, 95% CI = 1.06 to 2.15; P(trend) = .006; women, RR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.12 to 2.05; P(trend) = .002), and height (men, RR = 1.40, 95% CI = 0.99 to 1.98; P(trend) = .04; women, RR = 1.79, 95% CI = 1.30 to 2.46; P(trend)<.001) were related to colon cancer risk in both sexes. The estimated absolute risk of developing colon cancer within 5 years was 203 and 131 cases per 100,000 men and 129 and 86 cases per 100,000 women in the highest and lowest quintiles of WHR, respectively. Upon further stratification, no association of waist circumference and WHR with risk of colon cancer was observed among postmenopausal women who used HRT. None of the anthropometric measures was statistically significantly related to rectal cancer., Conclusions: Waist circumference and WHR, indicators of abdominal obesity, were strongly associated with colon cancer risk in men and women in this population. The association of abdominal obesity with colon cancer risk may vary depending on HRT use in postmenopausal women; however, these findings require confirmation in future studies.

The objectives of this study were to explore temporal changes in birth measures in Queensland, Australia, and examine whether secular trends are similar to those in other countries. This study used data from the Queensland Perinatal Data Collection, including singleton livebirths ( n = 831 375) from 1988 to 2005. Recorded birthweight (BW, g), birth length (BL, cm), gestational age (weeks), maternal age, ethnic origin and calculated ponderal index (PI, kg/m3) were used. Temporal trends were assessed over the intervals 1988–2005 for BW and 2001–2005 for BW, BL and PI. Mean BW increased during the 17-year interval by ∼1.9 g/year at a relatively low rate compared with reports from other countries. The proportion of high BW infants (≥4000 g) rose by 0.8% per year. Stratification by Indigenous status indicated that the increase in mean BW and prevalence of high BW was confined to non-Indigenous newborns only. The secular increase in BW was further modified by gestational age, and maternal age. The increase in BW was larger in term infants (4.2 g/year) than in preterm infants (1.8 g/year), and larger in infants of younger mothers than in those of older mothers (5.0 g/year vs. 3.1 g/year). There were no trends in mean BL and mean PI at birth from 2001 to 2005. In Queensland, mean BW increased moderately in the last 17 years, as did the proportion of high BW infants. The trend in rising BW remained after controlling for other perinatal characteristics. Birth measures per se and related trends differed by Indigenous status and warrant further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]