How your mother's hips can raise the risk of cancer

A study of thousands of women has revealed a clear link between the two.

In general, daughters of women with wide hips are 60 per cent more likely than others to be diagnosed with breast cancer, which claims the lives of more than 1,000 British women a month.

But the risk rises to more than seven-fold if the mother carried them for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy and if they have older siblings.

Researcher Professor David Barker said the phenomenon can be explained by the effect of oestrogen and could eventually lead to a drug to prevent breast cancer.

It is thought that high levels of the hormone in a woman's blood at the start and end of pregnancy cause dangerous changes to the immature breast tissue in the developing baby.

The width of a women's hips is directly related to the amount of oestrogen she is producing - and so the amount her unborn baby is exposed to.

Prof Barker, of Southampton University, an internationallyrenowned medical researcher, said: "A women's hip size is a marker of her oestrogen production. Wide, round hips represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer."

He made the link after studying the health of more than 6,000 Finnish women born from 1934 to 1944 and comparing it with information on their mothers' hip size.

The measurement used was the "intercristal diameter" - the distance from hip bone to hip bone.

Analysis showed that a woman's risk of breast cancer went up by 60 per cent if her mother's hips were more than 11.8in (30cm) across.

The risk increased with hip size and with the length of time the baby was in the womb.

Babies carried by wider-hipped women for the full 40 weeks of gestation or longer were 3.7 times more likely to develop breast cancer.

Adding the existence of elder siblings into the equation took the risk to more than seven-fold.

The developing baby is exposed to the most maternal oestrogen at the start and at the end of pregnancy. Prof Barker said his findings, reported in the American Journal of Human Biology, could lead to the development of a drug that prevents breast cancer in just three years.

Given to pregnant women, it would lower levels of oestrogen, preventing the developing baby from breast cancer in later life.

"This is a very exciting time," he said.

"Breast cancer is the most feared cancer among women but how to prevent it has got completely stuck.

"I don't see there are huge barriers into translating this into prevention."

It is unclear whether such a drug would be effective against all types of breast cancer.

Prof Barker added that the idea of a mother-to-be's hormones triggering the disease in her daughters was not new.

Women whose mothers took a hormonal pregnancy "wonder drug" are already known to have double the risk of the disease.

A synthetic version of oestrogen - diethylstiboestrol or DES - left the horrific legacy after being routinely prescribed from the 1940s to 1970s to prevent miscarriage.

Dr Lesley Walker, of Cancer Research UK said more research was needed to confirm the link between hip size and breast cancer in the next generation.

She said: "The importance of oestrogen in stimulating the growth of breast cancer is well known.

"While this study appears to show an effect that crosses a generation, we would need to see the results confirmed in followup studies.

"Cancer Research UK encourages all women to be breast aware and attend screening when invited."