We know a big brain doesn’t make someone smarter … but it may make someone more susceptible to cancer. Dr. Even Hovig Fyllingen, of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, wanted an answer on why that is. And a brain’s size itself may be the simple answer.
The reason people with larger brains are more likely to get cancer may be the same reason tall people are more likely to get cancer – more cells. “Several studies have shown that the size of different organs is an important factor in cancer development. For example, women with larger breasts have a greater risk of breast cancer. We wanted to check if this was also the case for brain tumors,” Dr. Fylligen told EurekAlert!
Read More Dr. Fyllingen used information collected in the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study – which gathered health data and blood samples from thousands of Norwegians in the Nord-Trøndelag county region. The purpose of that study was to answer the question of why some people get sick, while other stay healthy. Dr. Fyllingen took the data from the Nord-Trøndelag Health Study and compared it to St. Olavs Hospital’s neurosurgery database. He focused his research on people who had been operated on for high-grade gliomas (
brain tumors) between 2007 and 2015. His research used MRI scans to measure brain size. What Dr. Fyllingen determined is that having more cells matters when it comes to brain cancer – simply because it creates a higher chance that a cell will develop into cancer. His explanation may also explain why men are more likely to get brain cancer than women – men have bigger brains. “Men have a larger brain than women because men’s bodies are generally larger,” Dr. Fyllingen said. “It doesn’t mean that men are smarter, but you need to have more brain cells to control a large body. This is also the case with animals.”
Even though men are more likely to develop cancer, Dr. Fyllingen said that women with larger brains have a greater risk of developing brain tumors than men with larger brains. “When we correct for head size, it’s no longer beneficial to be female,” the doctor said. “Women with large brains are particularly susceptible. Why that is, I have no idea.”
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