London, Jul 14 (IANS): Men who are tall and obese may be at an increased risk of developing aggressive prostate cancer as well as death from the condition, according to a study.

The findings showed that with every additional ten centimetres (3.9 inches) of height the risk of aggressive prostate cancer and death from it increased by 21 per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

Higher BMI was also found to be associated with increased risk of aggressive tumours as well as increased risk of death from prostate cancer.

This may be due to changes in hormone levels in obese men, which in turn may increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.

Waist circumference, which is seen as a more accurate measure of obesity than BMI in older adults, was associated with an 18 per cent greater risk of death from prostate cancer.

With every ten centimetres (3.9 inches) increase in waist circumference, there was a 13 per cent greater risk of aggressive cancer, the researchers said.

"The finding of high risk in taller men may provide insights into the mechanisms underlying prostate cancer development, for example related to early nutrition and growth," said lead author Aurora Perez-Cornago from the the University of Oxford in the UK.

"We also found that a healthy body weight is associated with a reduced risk of high grade prostate cancer and death from prostate cancer years later," Perez-Cornago added in the paper published in the journal BMC Medicine.

For the study, the team included a cohort of 1,41,896 men collected from eight countries -- Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Germany and Greece.

The data included 7,024 incident prostate cancers, 726 high-grade and 1,388 advanced stage prostate cancers, and 934 prostate cancer deaths.