Finger length predicts prostate cancer risk: study
AFP - Wednesday,
December 1
PARIS
(AFP) - – Men whose index fingers are longer than their ring, or
fourth, fingers run a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer,
according to a study published Wednesday in the British Journal of
Cancer.
The chances of developing the disease drop by a third, and even
more in younger men, the study found.
"Our results show that relative finger length could be used as a
simple test for prostate cancer risk, particularly in men aged
under 60," said Ros Eeles, a professor at the Institute of Cancer
Research in Britain and co-author of the study.
Finger pattern could help identify which men should undergo
regular screening, especially in combination with genetic testing
or other risk factors such as a family history of the disease, she
said.
From 1994 to 2009, Eeles and colleagues questioned more than
1,500 prostate cancer patients in Britain, along with 3,000 healthy
control cases.
For more than half the men, the index was shorter than the ring
finger. Compared to this group, men whose index and ring fingers
were the same length -- 19 percent of the cohort -- had a similar
prostate cancer risk.
But when the index finger was longer, the risk of developing the
disease dropped by 33 percent.
Men under 60 were 87 percent less likely to be in the cancer
group.
The relative length of the two fingers in question -- set before
birth -- appears to be a marker of different levels of sex hormones
to which a baby is exposed in the womb, with less testosterone
correlating with a longer index finger.
Earlier research has shown that testosterone promotes the growth
of prostate cancer.
Underlying the unexpected connection between digits and cancer
are two genes, HOXA and HOXD, that control both finger length and
the development of sex organs.
Other studies have found a link between exposure to hormones
before birth and the development of other diseases, including
breast cancer and osteoarthritis.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101201/tts-health-disease-cancer-prostate-c1b2fc3.html
