According to a study published today in the online edition of the International Journal of Cancer, babies who weigh more at birth are at a greater risk of developing digestive and lymphatic cancers in adulthood than those born weighing less. This study also concluded that women who were heavier at birth had a higher risk of developing breast cancer before the age of 50.

Valerie A. McCormack of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Universities of Uppsala and Stockholm studied the files of 11,166 babies who were born between 1915 and 1929 at Sweden's Uppsala Academic Hospital. Of this group, 24 percent or 2685 people were diagnosed with cancer between 1960 and 2001. The study found that the group that weighed more at birth had a 17 percent increase in lymphatic cancers, and a 13 percent increase in digestive cancers.

No relation between reproductive cancers and a higher birth weight.

Similar studies have found a relationship between smaller birth weight and the increased risks of adult heart disease and diabetes.