Breast size a cancer pointer

Women with a large bra size when they were young are more likely to develop pre-menopausal breast cancer, American researchers have found.

The Harvard University study of nearly 90,000 women shows that lean women of normal weight who had a D-cup when aged 20 were at greater risk of the cancer in later life than those who wore the smaller A-cup.

But the researchers, whose study has been published in the International Journal of Cancer, say the link with bra size does not appear to apply to overweight or obese women.

The study used data from 89,268 women first recruited for the long-term health and lifestyle research in 1989 when aged 25 to 42.

They completed questionnaires every two years and their dimensions at age 18 and bra size at 20 were recorded, with diet, breast cancer family history and other factors.

By 2001, a total of 803 women had been diagnosed with pre-menopausal breast cancer.

The results show that among women with a normal body mass index (BMI 18.5 to 25), those with larger bra cup sizes had a statistically significant increased risk.

"Among women with a BMI of less than 25, bra cup sizes of B and D or larger were significantly associated with an increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer compared to women who reported A or smaller."

The reason for the cancer link among the normal-weight women is not clear. One theory is that the risk may rise as the number of mammary gland cells and breast size increase.

Dr Belinda Scott, the chairwoman of the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation's medical committee, said yesterday the finding of a link with bra cup size was interesting but the cancer cases might have had established risk factors such as smoking, early onset of puberty or not having children.

"What we see in practice is women of all sizes. The women we see with higher incidence are the obese women, so, often their bra size is bigger because they are obese.

"We know that women with larger breasts have more difficulty finding their cancers.

"Maybe one of the things out of this," Dr Scott said, "is that women who are larger breasted have to be careful with having mammograms from the age of 40."

- Staff reporter, Independent