Elevated cholesterol may increase prostate cancer risk.
Higher levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, two types of fat, in the blood of men who underwent surgery for prostate cancer, were associated with increased risk of recurrence of the disease.
The study was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, which is a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“While laboratory studies support an important role for cholesterol in prostate cancer, population-based evidence linking cholesterol and prostate cancer is mixed,” said Emma Allott, PhD, postdoctoral associate at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. “Understanding associations between obesity, cholesterol, and prostate cancer is important given that cholesterol levels are readily modifiable with diet and/or statin use, and could therefore have important, practical implications for prostate cancer prevention and treatment.”
“Our findings suggest that normalization, or even partial normalization, of serum lipid levels among men with dyslipidemia [abnormal lipid profile] may reduce the risk of prostate cancer recurrence,” said Allott.
Allott, Stephen Freedland, MD, associate professor of surgery at Duke University School of Medicine, and a research team analyzed data from over 800 men who underwent surgery for prostate cancer.
The researchers found that those who had serum triglyceride levels of 150 mg/dL or higher had a 35 percent increased risk for prostate cancer recurrence. Among those with an abnormal blood lipid profile, or every 10 mg/dL increase in total serum cholesterol above 200 mg/dL, there was a 9 percent increased risk for the recurrence of prostate cancer.
For every 10 mg/dL increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL; known as “good” cholesterol) among men with abnormal HDL (below the desirable value of 40 mg/dL), the risk for prostate cancer recurrence was lowered by 39 percent.
“Given that 45 percent of deaths worldwide can be attributed to cardiovascular disease and cancer, with prostate cancer being the second most common cause of male cancer deaths in the United States, understanding the role of dyslipidemia as a shared, modifiable risk factor for both of these common causes of mortality is of great importance,” Allot added.
Study participants were gathered from the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) database and treated at one of the six Veterans Affairs Medical Centers in California, North Carolina, and Georgia.
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REFERENCES:
1. “Elevated Cholesterol and Triglycerides May Increase the Risk for Prostate Cancer Recurrence.” AACR. American Association for Cancer Research, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
2. “Serum Lipid Profile and Risk of Prostate Cancer Recurrence: Results from the SEARCH Database.” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention. American Association for Cancer Research, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
3. “Elevated Cholesterol, Triglycerides May Increase Risk for Prostate Cancer Recurrence.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.
4. “The Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) Nomogram for Risk Stratification in Intermediate Risk Group of Men with Prostate Cancer: Validation in the Duke Prostate Center Database.” National Center for Biotechnology Information. BJU International, Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
