Being overweight increases advanced prostate cancer risk

NEW YORK:

Researchers

have found that being overweight in middle age and later

adulthood

linked to a greater risk of advanced prostate cancer. Using data from 15 large studies combined together, the research team examined associations between body fat, height, and

prostate cancer

risk in 8,30,772 men, 51,734 of whom had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“This

study

shows that adopting and maintaining a healthy

weight

in middle to late adulthood can especially reduce the risk of advanced prostate cancer,” said study lead author

Jeanine Genkinger

from

Columbia University

in the US.

According to the researchers, prostate

cancer

is the second most common cause of cancer in men in the US. Fewer than one in three men with advanced prostate cancer live five years beyond diagnosis. Before this study, only a few studies examined contributing factors to advanced prostate cancer.

There was a noticeable lack of research on the linkage between factors like weight in early adulthood, changes in weight during adulthood, and waist circumference, specifically with advanced prostate cancer risk. The current research took a life-course-based approach, examining survey data collected across respondents’ lifespans to determine whether and at what age during adulthood excess body fat increased risk for advanced prostate cancer.

The researchers found that a body mass index (BMI) elevated above a healthy weight during the middle to late adulthood — median age range from 50 to 64 — was linked to the greatest risk for advanced prostate cancer. Also, greater waist circumference was linked with an increased risk of advanced prostate cancer and death.

According to the researchers, although other studies have linked higher BMI with increased prostate cancer, this is the first study to find a positive association with waist circumference.

“These results show that risk for advanced prostate cancer can be decreased by maintaining a ‘healthy’ weight and adopting healthy eating and exercising,” Genkinger concluded.