Monday, March 19, 2007

Obesity Doubles Odds of Prostate Cancer Mortality

Obese men diagnosed with prostate cancer in middle age are at a 2.6-fold higher risk of dying from the disease than are patients of normal weight, according to a case-control study.
Surprisingly, the increased prostate-cancer-specific mortality risk was independent of treatment and key prognostic factors at diagnosis, including disease grade and stage, reported Alan R. Kristal, Dr.P.H., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center here, and colleagues, in the March 15 issue of Cancer.
Epidemiology data has consistently indicated a modest increase in prostate cancer mortality among men with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or greater. However, it was unclear whether the effect was due to poor prognostic factors or an effect on progression after treatment.
So, the researchers looked at 752 men ages 40 to 64 with newly diagnosed, histologically confirmed prostate cancer in the Seattle-Puget Sound Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registry.
The men reported their pre-diagnosis height and weight in a baseline interview and were followed through the registry for an average of 9.5 years.
The mean BMI was 26.7 kg/m2, and 17.0% of the men were obese. About a quarter had regional- or distant-stage prostate cancer at diagnosis (27%), and 14% had Gleason scores of 7 or higher. Most underwent radical prostatectomy as the primary treatment (63%).
http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/ProstateCancer/tb1/5264

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