Adverse Lipid Profile Raises Prostate Cancer Recurrence Risk

Emerging data suggests a potential role of dietary fat in prostate cancer risk. Emma Allott, from Duke University School of Medicine (North Carolina, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on 843 men, enrolled in the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) database , who underwent radical prostatectomy after a prostate cancer diagnosis and who never took statins before surgery. They found that those who had serum triglyceride levels of 150 mg/dL or higher had a 35% increased risk for prostate cancer recurrence, when compared with patients who had normal levels of triglycerides. Among those with abnormal blood lipid profile, for every 10 mg/dL increase in total serum cholesterol above 200 mg/dL, there was a 9% increased risk for prostate cancer recurrence. For every 10 mg/dL increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL; known as "good" cholesterol) among men with abnormal HDL (below the desirable value of 40 mg/dL), the risk for prostate cancer recurrence was lowered by 39%. The study authors submit that: "These findings… suggest that lipid levels should be explored as a modifiable risk factor for prostate cancer recurrence.”