Retrospective Analysis of Birth Weight and Prostate Cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study

Abstract

The authors retrospectively evaluated the relation between birth weight and prostate cancer (1986-1994) among 21,140 men of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who reported in 1994 their weight at birth. No relation between birth weight and prostate cancer (n = 545) was observed in multivariate logistic models. For high stage/grade tumors (n = 213), compared with birth weights <7.0 Ibs (<3,175 g), the relative risks were 1.20 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.79-1.83) for 8.5-9.9 Ibs (3,855.6-4,490.6 g) and 1.30 (95% CI 0.80-2.10) for greater than or equal to 10 Ibs (greater than or equal to 4,536 g). These findings do not support an overall association between birth weight and prostate cancer incidence, but the possibility of a modest positive association between birth weight and high stage/grade prostatic cancer cannot be excluded.