Study found taller, heavier males were more likely to develop prostate cancer, die from it
THURSDAY, July 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) — The larger a man, the greater his risk of developing and dying from aggressive prostate cancer, according to a study published online July 13 in BMC Medicine.
Aurora Perez-Cornago, Ph.D., a nutritional epidemiologist with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and colleagues came to their conclusions based on data from 141,896 men in eight European countries who participated in a large-scale study of cancer and nutrition. Among these men, 7,024 developed prostate cancer during an average 14 years of follow-up, including 726 diagnosed with high-grade cancer and 1,388 with advanced-stage cancer. Of those diagnosed, 934 died from their cancer.
Every additional 4 inches of height was associated with a 21 percent increase in risk of being diagnosed with high-grade prostate cancer, and a 17 percent increased risk of dying from prostate cancer, the researchers found. The same held true regarding the size of a man’s waist. Every 4-inch increase in waist circumference was associated with a 13 percent increased risk of developing high-grade prostate cancer and an 18 percent increased risk of dying from prostate cancer.
“In summary, the findings from this large European prospective study provide evidence that men with greater height and adiposity (high body mass index and waist circumference) have an elevated risk of high-grade prostate cancer and prostate cancer death,” the authors write. “The data presented illustrate the complex association of adiposity and prostate cancer, which varies by disease aggressiveness.”
Copyright © 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
