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Height of Women, Twinning and Breast Cancer: Epidemiological Evidence of a Relationship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

John D.H. Doherty
John D.H. Doherty*
Affiliation:
Medical Service, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy
*
Medical Service, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy

Abstract

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A comparison was made of the stature of women, twinning rates, and breast cancer mortality for 32 countries. As height increased, so did twinning and breast cancer mortality (P < 0.005). Dizygotic twinning and breast cancer increased sharply with the mean height of the female population. With due caution in drawing causal inferences when uncontrolled confounding variables are present, it is suggested that these findings are an evolutionary consequence of the high mortality found in twin pregnancy.

Keywords

Twinning ratesHeight of womenBreast cancerGonadotrophinsPerinatal mortality
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta geneticae medicae et gemellologiae: twin research , Volume 37 , Issue 3-4 , October 1988 , pp. 263 - 275
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1988

References

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