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. 2025 Feb 1;15(1):93-100.
doi: 10.31661/jbpe.v0i0.2412-1869. eCollection 2025 Feb.

The Association between Breast Cup Size and Breast Cancer Incidence: Insights from a Global Dataset

Mehdi Faraz  1 , Samaneh Nematollahi  2 , Sedigheh Tahmasebi  3 , James S Welsh  4   5 , Joseph John Bevelacqua  6 , Seyed Mohammad Javad Mortazavi  7   8 , Seyed Alireza Mortazavi  9
Affiliations

The Association between Breast Cup Size and Breast Cancer Incidence: Insights from a Global Dataset

Mehdi Faraz et al. J Biomed Phys Eng. .

Abstract

The relationship between breast size and breast cancer risk is complex and not fully understood. This study investigates how breast size, categorized by cup size, correlates with age-standardized rates (ASR) of breast cancer incidence. Data were collected from two sources: breast cancer incidence rates from the Global Cancer Observatory (GCO) and breast size data from "Data Pandas," an open-access database. This allowed for a cross-country analysis of breast cancer incidence and breast size characteristics. Descriptive statistics indicated that ASR increased with larger cup sizes, ranging from 34.72 (AA) to 90.17 (C). An ANOVA test revealed significant differences in mean ASR among cup size groups (F=14.416, P<0.001), with Bonferroni comparisons showing distinct clusters: smaller sizes (AA, AA-A, A) differed significantly from larger sizes (A-B, B, B-C, C).The largest mean ASR difference was between groups A and C (-42.93, P=0.001), highlighting higher ASR in larger cup sizes. This suggests a significant association between breast cup size and breast cancer ASR, potentially linked to physiological or hormonal factors.Despite limitations, these findings prompt further investigation. The next phase will focus on breast cancer patients, addressing relevant risk factors for a more comprehensive understanding of the associations observed.

Keywords: Breast Cancer Risk; Breast Neoplasms; Breast Size; Carcinoma, Ductal; Machine Learning; Peto’s Paradox; Physiological Predictors.

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Conflict of interest statement

SMJ. Mortazavi and JS. Welsh, as the Editorial Board Members, were not involved in the peer-review and decision-making processes for this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The mean ASR values for each cup size group with error bars representing the standard deviations. (ASR: Age-Standardized Rate)
Figure 2
Figure 2
The range of ASR values for each cup size group, with bars representing minimum and maximum values. Black dots indicate the mean ASR for context. (ASR: Age-Standardized Rate)
Figure 3
Figure 3
The differences in ASR means between specific cup size groups. Positive differences are marked in green, and negative differences are in red. (ASR: Age-Standardized Rate)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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