Birth Weight and Incidence of Breast Cancer: Dose-Response Meta-analysis of Prospective Studies.

BACKGROUND

Many studies have shown the association between birth weight and breast cancer (BC), but the evidence remains limited and inconsistent, especially in different menopause status. We sought to clarify the relationship and shape of the dose-response relation between birth weight and BC.

METHODS

The Web of Science, PubMed, and Embase databases were searched for prospective studies involving the relationship between birth weight and risk of BC published to November 2019. Random effects of generalized least squares regression models were used to estimate the quantitative dose-response association, and restricted cubic splines were used to model the association.

RESULTS

We included reports of 16 prospective studies describing 16,000 incident cases among 553,644 participants. We identified a modest-in-magnitude, but significant, association between birth weight and BC risk: risk increased by 2% (risk ratio, 1.02, 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.03) and 9% (risk ratio, 1.09, 95% confidence interval, 1.04-1.15) with a per-500 g birth weight increment in all ages and premenopausal women, respectively. Our results showed a linear dose-response relationship between birth weight and BC risk (P = .311) in premenopausal women, with statistical significance when birth weight was above about 3.5 kg. No significant association was found in postmenopausal women.

CONCLUSION

Higher birth weight has a relationship with increased risk of BC in premenopausal women, particularly when birth weight is above 3.5 kg.