メディエイゴ

In a study of the maternity(1) records of more than 6,000 women, David J.P. Barker, M.D., Ph.D., and Kent Thornburg, Ph.D., of Oregon Health & Science University discovered a strong correlation(2) between the size and shape of a woman's hips and her daughter's risk of breast cancer(3). Wide, round hips, the researchers(4) postulated(5), represent(6) markers(7) of high sex hormone(8) concentrations(9) in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to(10) breast cancer.

A woman's hips are shaped at puberty(11) when the growth of the hip bones (12) is controlled by sex hormones but is also influenced(13) by the level of nutrition(14). Every woman has a unique(15) sex hormone profile(16) which is established(17) at puberty and persists(18) through her reproductive life(19). The study's findings show for the first time that the pubertal(20) growth spurt(21) of girls is strongly associated with(22) the risk of breast cancer in their daughters. The study, carried out(23) with colleagues(24) in Finland and the United Kingdom, is described in an article just published online(25) by the peer-reviewed(26) American Journal of Human Biology. The authors(27) followed up(28) on 6,370 women born in Helsinki(29) from 1934 to 1944 whose mothers' pelvic bones(30) were measured during routine(31) prenatal care(32). The study found that breast cancer rates(33) were more than three times higher(34) among the women in the cohort(35), born at or after term(36), whose mothers had wide hips. They were more than seven times higher if those mothers had already given birth to(37) one or more children.