Height and mortality from cancer among men: prospective observational study

When preparing an update to this analysis by Davey Smith and colleagues (BMJ 1998;317: 1351-2), the authors realised that a computer program miscoding had occurred for cancers related or unrelated to smoking. They had originally reported that greater height was associated with increased risk of cancers unrelated to smoking, but not cancers related to smoking. They have now found that, although the overall association between height and cancer mortality remains, there is no material difference in the strength of the association with cancers related to smoking or those unrelated to smoking. Full details of the reanalysis are available in the report of the updated analysis (Batty GD, Shipley MJ, Langenberg C, Marmot MG, Davey Smith G. Adult height in relation to mortality from 14 cancer sites in men in London (UK): evidence from the original Whitehall study. Ann Oncol 2005 Oct 25 [epub ahead of print]).