The population of Leningrad suffered from severe starvation, coldand psychological stress during the siege in World War II in1941–1944. We investigated the long-term effects of the siege oncancer mortality in 3,901 men and 1,429 women, born between1910 and 1940. All study subjects were residents of St. Petersburg,formerly Leningrad, between 1975 and 1982. One third of themhad experienced the siege as children, adolescents or young adults(age range, 1–31 years at the peak of starvation in 1941–1942).Associations of siege exposure with risk of death from cancer werestudied using a multivariable Cox regression, stratified by genderand period of birth, adjusted for age, smoking, alcohol and socialcharacteristics, from 1975 to 1977 (men) and 1980 to 1982, respectively(women), until the end of 2005. Women who were 10–18 years old at the peak of starvation were taller as adults (ageadjusteddifference, 1.7 cm; 95% CI, 0.5–3.0) and had a higherrisk of dying from breast cancer compared with unexposedwomen born during the same period (age-adjusted HR, 9.9; 95%CI, 1.1–86.5). Mortality from prostate cancer was nonsignificantlyhigher in exposed men. The experience of severe starvation andstress during childhood and adolescence may have long-termeffects on cancer in surviving men and women.