Obesity linked with higher prostate cancer risk

Men who are overweight are more likely than thinner men to be diagnosed with Prostate cancers that are less likely to be detected on screening and more likely to be aggressive, according to a report in the medical journal Urology.

"Obesity may actually be associated with an increased risk of developing Prostate cancer, but various features among obese men make it harder to detect the cancer," Dr. Stephen J. Freedland from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, explained to Reuters Health. "If you do find them, it's probably the more aggressive cancers that you are finding."

Freedland and colleagues evaluated the relationship between body mass index (BMI), a height-to-weight ratio used to estimate body fat, and Prostate cancer and various other factors using data from 787 consecutive men undergoing prostate biopsy at Palo Alto Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Palo Alto, California.

These body mass index (BMI) numbers are used world-wide, by the World Health Organization (WHO), and nationally by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes for Health (NIH), to track of the world-wide and U.S. epidemic of Obesity. Overall, BMI did not appear to be associated with the odds of being diagnosed with Prostate cancer. However, the authors report, a higher BMI was significantly associated with an increased odds of being diagnosed with prostate cancer after factoring in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, digital rectal examination findings, prostate size and race.

Men with a BMI above 35 (indicating obesity), faced a 2.4-fold higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer, compared with normal-weight men, the report indicates.

Higher prostate volume in obese men was the greatest contributor to obscuring the association between BMI and Prostate cancer development, the researchers note.

Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer involves a malignant tumor growth within the prostate gland.

The cause of prostate cancer is unknown, although some studies have shown a relationship between high dietary fat intake and increased testosterone levels. When testosterone levels are lowered either by surgical removal of the testicles (castration, orchiectomy) or by medication, prostate cancer can regress. There is no known association with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

After considering the contribution of PSA level, examination findings, prostate volume and race, a was also associated with a significantly increased odds of a high Gleason score, a measure of tumor aggressiveness, the investigators report.