Metabolic Factors Linked to Increased Risk for Prostate Cancer Death
Previous studies have shown that obesity is associated with increased risk for death from prostate cancer. However, few studies have looked into the influence of specific metabolic factors on prostate cancer and most of these studies were relatively small in terms of number of patients involved.
For the study, Christel Häggström, MSc, of Umeå University in Sweden and colleagues analyzed data from the ongoing Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer Project (Me-Can), which involves more than 289,000 men from Sweden, Norway, and Austria. The database provided information on the participants’ demographic and physical characteristics, including measurements of blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol levels and other relevant clinical data. The mean age of the participants was 44 years at the start of the study.
The investigators followed up the participants for 12 years, during which more than 6,000 men developed prostate cancer and more than 900 died of the disease.
Their analysis of associations between risk factors and death from prostate cancer revealed that there were three factors that were linked to an increased risk, which included body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure (the upper number in a blood pressure reading), and diastolic blood pressure (the lower number).
Häggström explains that while their analysis showed that metabolic factors were not associated with the development of prostate cancer, these were found to increase the risk of death from the disease. He believes that from a public health perspective, their findings will increase people’s motivation to control metabolic factors such as obesity to lower the risk of death from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and prostate cancer.
Source:
Bankhead, C. BMI, BP Don’t Up Prostate Cancer Risk. MedPage Today.
Posted in: Cancer, News Briefs, Prostate Cancer
Tags: cardiovascular disease, death from diabetes, death from prostate cancer, metabolic factors
