A prospective study of birth weight and prostate cancer risk and mortality in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study

Background Previous studies have observed inconsistent associations between birth weight and aggressive prostate cancer risk. This study aimed to prospectively analyse this association in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). Methods Birth weight was self-reported in 1994, and prostate cancer diagnoses were assessed biennially through January 2017 and confirmed by medical record review. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to evaluate the association between birth weight and prostate cancer risk and mortality. Results Among 19,889 eligible men, 2520 were diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 643 with higher-grade/advanced stage, 296 with lethal, and 248 with fatal disease. Overall, no association was observed for increasing birth weight with risk of overall prostate cancer, lower-grade, and organ-confined disease. However, a borderline statistically significant positive trend was observed for increasing birth weight with risk of higher-grade and/or advanced-stage prostate cancer (adjusted hazard ratio [HR adj ] per pound: 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.99–1.11; P -trend = 0.08), but no associations were observed with risk of lethal or fatal disease (HR adj : 0.99, 95% CI: 0.91–1.08; P -trend = 0.83; and HR adj : 0.99, 95% CI: 0.90–1.08; P -trend = 0.82, respectively). Conclusion No consistent associations were observed between birth weight and prostate cancer risk or mortality in this 22-year prospective cohort study.