WARWICK, England, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Men who have index fingers longer than their ring fingers have a lower risk than others of prostate cancer, British researchers suggest.
Researchers at The University of Warwick and The Institute of Cancer Research found men whose index finger is longer than their ring finger were one-third less likely to develop prostate cancer than men with the opposite finger length pattern.
"Our results show that relative finger length could be used as a simple test for prostate cancer risk, particularly in men aged under 60," joint senior author Ros Eeles of the ICR said in a statement.
From 1994 to 2009, the researchers compared the hands of more than 1,500 prostate cancer patients along with more than 3,000 healthy control cases.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, found most men had a shorter index than ring finger, and men whose index and ring fingers were the same length -- about 19 percent -- had a similar prostate cancer risk. But men whose index fingers were longer than their ring fingers were 33 percent less likely to have prostate cancer, in men age 60 and under -- and 87 percent less likely to be in the prostate cancer group.
The relative length of index and ring fingers is set before birth, and is believed to relate to the levels of sex hormones a fetus is exposed to in the womb. Less testosterone equates to a longer index finger, Eeles said.
