UPDATE - Issue 29 - Spring 2007
Dangers of obesity
Obese men with prostate cancer are much more likely to die from the disease when compared to men of normal weight at the time of diagnosis, according to results published in the March edition of Cancer.
The study followed 752 recently diagnosed middle-aged Seattle-area prostate-cancer patients for about 10 years. 17% of the participants were classified as obese, with a body-mass index of 30 or more.
The study concluded that if a man is obese at the time of diagnosis, he faces a 2.6-fold greater risk of dying compared to a normal-weight man with the same diagnostic profile. This is regardless of whether he has a radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, whether or not he gets androgen-deprivation therapy, whether he has low- or high-grade disease and whether he has localized, regional or distant disease.
There is also a 3.6-fold increased risk of cancer spreading into other organs, or metastasis. 'I think this study represents the first good piece of evidence that losing weight may in fact reduce the risk of dying of prostate cancer' said Alan Kristal from the US Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who led the project.