London: You can’t stay away from breast cancer. But, you can discover if you’re at risk for the disease – it’s too easy, just check out your mother’s size.

According to an analysis by British researchers, female whose mothers have broad and round hips could be seven times more potential to have breast cancer.

Prof David Barker of Southampton University, who lead the study, said, “A women's hip size is a marker of her oestrogen production. Wide, round hips represent markers of high sex hormone concentrations in the mother, which increase her daughter's vulnerability to breast cancer.”

Actually, the scientists came to the decision after analysing the physical condition of more than 6,000 Finnish women born between 1934 to 1944, and equating it with data on their mothers’ hip size.

The measurement used by the researchers was the intercristal diameter - the widest distance between the wing-like structures at the top of the hip bone

The findings detected that a woman’s breast cancer risk rose by 60 per cent if her mother’s hips were over 30 cm across. The risk augmented with hip size and with the time period the baby was in the uterus.

Additionally, the scientists discovered that infants carried by wider-hipped women for the complete 40 weeks of pregnancy or longer were 3.7 times more expected to develop breast cancer.

And, adding up the subsistence of elder siblings into the equation took the risk to more than seven-fold.

However, Prof Barker is thinking over the growth of a 'wonder drug' against the ailment.

“Breast cancer is the most feared cancer among women but how to prevent it has got completely stuck. I don't see there are huge barriers into translating this into prevention,” Barker added.

The study findings have been released in newest version of the 'American Journal of Human Biology'.