Finger Length and Prostate Cancer Risk

It might be useful to know if you are at increased risk for prostate cancer, so that you can be more religious about having the available screening procedures in good time.  Just look at your hand.  A study reported in the British Journal of Cancer suggests that a man whose index finger is longer than his ring finger is less likely to develop cancer of the prostate than one whose ring finger is longer than his index finger.  

UK researchers studied over 1,500 prostate cancer patients and 3,000 healthy controls at 3 large city hospitals. About 20% of the men had index and ring fingers of the same length, and they had very similar risks of developing prostate cancer.  In the remaining 80%, the risk for this cancer was 33% lower for the men with longer index fingers than ring fingers.  And in men under 60, those with longer index fingers were 87% less likely to develop prostate cancer. 

The authors explain that adult male finger length is set in the womb, while the baby is exposed to sex hormones.  The more testosterone the baby is exposed to, the shorter his index finger will be.  This is thought to occur because the genes HOXA and HOXD control both finger length and development of the sex organs.  Previous studies have suggested a link between hormone levels in the womb and the risk for breast cancer, also demonstrating differences in women’s finger lengths.

This study has attracted quite a lot of skeptical comments in various UK blogs.  Replication will be necessary before too much attention should be paid to the finding.  But if it’s caused you to think more about the risk factors for prostate cancer – family history, ethnicity, diet, obesity - and what you can do about the last two, I am content.