LONDON: A new study has found that men with high cholesterol levels, especially when they are below 50 years of age, run a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. The study, conducted by Italian scientists, used data from 1991 and 2002 involving 1,294 men aged 75 and afflicted with prostate cancer to establish that there is a direct link between prostate cancer and higher levels of cholesterol. The details of the study have been published in the journal Annals of Oncology.
The researchers also found a link between incidence of gallstones and prostate cancer and said the link was strongest in men with more than average cholesterol levels in their blood at earlier ages.
Dr Francesca Bravi, epidemiologist at the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, who has been part of the study, said the relation between high cholesterol and prostate cancer was self-reported by patients. She and her team found that men with prostate cancer were around 50 per cent more likely to have had high cholesterol levels than men without the disease.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common forms of cancers in men and each year nearly 543,000 new cases are reported world over. It kills 200,000 people, mostly older men in developed countries.
Bravi said the link becomes stronger for men who were diagnosed with higher levels of cholesterol, before they were 50 years of age and for men over 65, where there was an 80 per cent higher chance of high cholesterol levels.
The findings also suggest that prostate cancer patients are 26 per cent more likely to get gallstones. Thinner men were found to be more vulnerable.
A member of the research team, Dr Cristina Bosetti, said hormones called androgens, which are known to stimulate the growth of prostate cancer cells, are created from the "building blocks" of cholesterol. Gallstones too contain cholesterol.
The researchers say statins, which are cholesterol-lowering drugs, may help to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Statins are also known to prevent diabetes and are often administered in patients at high risk of suffering heart attacks of strokes.
Bravi felt more studies are required to establish whether statins can indeed reduce the cancer risk.
Chris Hiley of the Prostate Cancer Charity too said more research is needed to confirm this but emphasized on the benefits of a varied diet. "We encourage men to cut down their intake of fatty foods and red and processed meat, but continue to eat oily fish and a high fiber diet with porridge oats, as well as plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables daily," he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Jay Brooks, chairman of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, said this is an interesting observation, "but prostate cancer is linked with obesity and diabetes -- both of which are known risk factors for high cholesterol." He said that could be the way the link works.
