ONCOmmunity

Height, nevus count, and risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma: results from two large cohorts of US women.

By: Xin Li, Peter Kraft, Immaculata De Vivo, Edward Giovannucci, Liming Liang, Hongmei Nan

Department of Epidemiology, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA;; Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
2019-09-04; doi: 10.1016/j.jaad.2020.04.158

Abstract

Background

Taller individuals are at higher risk of melanoma.

Objective

To prospectively investigate the association of height with nevus count and melanoma and estimate the proportion of height-melanoma association explained by nevus count among Caucasian participants from the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHS2.

Methods

We used Cox proportional hazards regression and multinomial logistic regression for data analyses with adjustment of potential confounders in the multivariate model.

Results

We included 82,468 and 106,069 women from the NHS and NHS2, respectively. The hazard ratio was 1.21 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12, 1.31] for the association between every 10-cm increase in height and melanoma. Compared to women with no nevi, the odds ratios (95% CIs) associated with 10-cm increase in height were 1.35 (1.23, 1.48) in the NHS and 1.12 (1.09, 1.15) in the NHS2 for women with 10+ moles. The proportion of excess melanoma risk associated with per 10-cm increase in height explained by nevus count was 8.03% in the NHS and 10.22% in the NHS2.

Limitation

Self-reported height and nevus count. Mole counts were limited to one arm or both legs.

Conclusion

Nevus count is an important explanatory factor for the excess risk of melanoma among taller Caucasians women.