Obesity and prostate cancer

UroToday – Obesity, Diabetes, and Risk of Prostate Cancer: Results from the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial: “These unique data obtained from a prospective randomized trial suggest that obesity may preferentially increase the risk of high-grade prostate cancer, while decreasing the risk of developing low-grade tumors. The authors suggest that this may explain why no association between BMI and prostate cancer has been found in studies that have not subdivided patients based on Gleason score.”
Original Abstract: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2006 Oct;15(10):1977-83
Obesity is considered by most to be a risk factor. This study showed a higher risk of more aggressive prostate cancer, but a lower risk of low grade prostate cancer in obese patients.
This study was taken from the prostate cancer prevention trial, where patients were followed for 7 years to determine the effects of proscar on the prevention of prostate cancer. This database of over 10,000 patients should provide many studies in the future.