Twitter Reacts: Height and Cancer Risk

By Kerri Fitzgerald - Last Updated: October 31, 2018

News broke that taller individuals have an increased risk of cancer because they have more cells in the body that could mutate and lead to cancer. The study indicated that the risk of cancer increases by 10% for every 4 inches a person is over the average height, defined as 5 feet, 4 inches for women and 5 feet, 9 inches for men.

There were many thoughts about this on Twitter:

Tall people are more likely to get cancer, study says https://t.co/1AaAjKTEGo good for short folks but a curious association. Usually tall is associated with advantage

— F Bruder Stapleton (@BruderStapleton) October 25, 2018

https://twitter.com/DrThyroid/status/1057314440033460224

mmh.😅😅👇

Tall people at greater risk of cancer 'because they have more cells' https://t.co/YaHriZLZY0

— Ernest (@ErnestM__) October 28, 2018

This could add some interesting discussion to a #bio class. Tall people at greater risk of #cancer, study says @CNN https://t.co/9qXGYHFXkp

— Dr. Kerryane Monahan (@DrKerryane) October 26, 2018

Tall people are more likely to get cancer, study finds. #cancer https://t.co/8VHAScKHba pic.twitter.com/NBle4xx8q4

— Jonathan Stegall, MD (@DrStegall) October 30, 2018

Tall people at greater risk of cancer 'because they have more cells' https://t.co/mKOiHRC2VC pic.twitter.com/GrEeIu3q7A

— Dr. Stefan Gruenwald (@sgruenwald) October 29, 2018

Tall people at greater risk of cancer 'because they have more cells' https://t.co/L8nXjw9Snu
If this hypothesis is correct, why wouldn't the determining factor be body weight, rather than height. A short, morbidly-obese person could have as many cells as a tall, non-obese one.

— @roygrubb@mastodon.green (@roygrubb) October 28, 2018

Sounds too simple to be true. Tall people at greater risk of cancer 'because they have more cells' https://t.co/l3QQzxrdmY https://t.co/k4Eiviyygq #cancer @guardianscience

— Nathan Letts, PhD 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 (@Sciguy999) October 24, 2018

Its nice when the news asks for what you think: Tall people are at higher risk of cancer — here's the long and the short of it https://t.co/IH5cbEmx7V

— Andrew Brooks (@CytokineSignal) October 24, 2018

Read about a new gene editing method for cancer.

Circulating tumor cell count is a predictor of outcomes in women with early breast cancer.

Sources: CNN