A recent study reveals a link between increased birth weight and the risk of developing bowel cancer at a young age, at a time when this disease continues to register an alarming rise among young people.
The study, conducted by the Yale School of Public Health in the United States and published in the journal Cancer, showed that a child's high birth weight, along with the father's advanced age at conception, may increase the likelihood of developing bowel cancer before the age of 50.
The researchers in the study relied on comparing data from 1,221 people diagnosed with bowel cancer before the age of 39 with data from more than 61,000 people who did not have the disease, with the aim of identifying factors that might explain the high rates of infection at younger ages.
The results showed that men are about one-third more likely to develop bowel cancer before the age of 50 than women, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies. Researchers suggest this may be related to levels of free testosterone, which has been linked in previous research to an increased risk of the disease.
But the most notable finding was the relationship between a child's birth weight and the risk of later developing bowel cancer. It was found that every half-kilogram increase in the weight of a newborn female was associated with a 10% higher risk, while no similar relationship was found in males.
The study also showed that women whose fathers were 35 or older when they became pregnant were more likely to develop bowel cancer at an earlier age, suggesting a possible link between advanced paternal age and the risk of developing the disease.
Researchers believe these results may be related to factors affecting the pregnancy period, such as maternal obesity or diabetes, two conditions that increase the likelihood of giving birth to high-weight babies, a condition medically known as "megafetal macrosomia".
This term is used for children who weigh 3.8 kilograms or more at birth.
Dr. Dimitrios Siasakos, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at University College London, explained that maternal obesity and diabetes increase the likelihood of having high-weight babies, which may partly explain the increased risk of bowel cancer at an early age.
The researchers also pointed out that advanced paternal age has been linked in previous studies to an increased likelihood of certain birth defects and types of cancer, and they suggest that this is due to a higher rate of new genetic mutations in children born to older fathers.
Despite the study's findings, the researchers stressed that it does not prove a direct causal relationship between these factors and bowel cancer, emphasizing the need for further studies to understand the reasons for the continued rise in disease rates among young people, which is likely due to a combination of overlapping factors, rather than a single cause.
