Long Finger Linked to Cancer Risk, Study Finds

Men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger are at lower risk, study says.

By ANN LUKITS
WSJ

A new study found that men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger are at lower risk to develop prostate cancer, according to the British Journal of Cancer.

Researchers studied the ratio between the 2nd and 4th finger of the right hand in 1,524 prostate-cancer patients and 3,044 healthy people over 15 years. Men with longer index fingers were 33% less likely to develop prostate cancer, and men under 60 had an 87% lower risk. In the prostate-cancer group, index fingers were longer in about 23% of the participants and shorter in 57%. In the control group, index fingers were longer in 31% and shorter in 52%. The rest of the men had fingers of equal length. The findings are in line with a recent study of 366 Korean men, which found a significant association between digit ratio and prostate-cancer risk.

Finger length is determined before birth and believed to be the result of hormonal influences. Too much testosterone appears to raise the risk of prostate cancer just as pre-natal exposure to estrogen affects a woman's breast-cancer risk. Hand pattern might be a simple marker for prostate-cancer risk, researchers said.

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