Men with long ring fingers may need private medical cover

Men who have a longer than average ring finger may want to consider private medical cover as they could be at greater risk of developing prostate cancer.

A new study has found that if a man's ring finger on his right hand is significantly longer than his index finger, then he could be up to three times more likely to suffer from the disease.

Doctors at Gachon University Gil Hospital, in Incheon, South Korea, studied 366 men over the age of 40 who were showing signs of prostate cancer, the Daily Mail reports.

After measuring the ring finger of the men the researchers conducted blood tests which revealed that those with much longer ring fingers had almost double the levels of prostate specific antigen – a chemical associated with cancer.

Of the men with the larger ring fingers, three times as many went on to develop prostate cancer, according to the study, published in the British Journal of Urology.

It is believed that the length of the ring finger on the right hand is significant as it is sensitive to hormonal changes in the womb.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males affecting 36,000 men in the UK.

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