New study links obesity with prostate cancer risk

A new study adds more evidence that obese men may have a significant increase for future prostate cancer.

The research studied the biopsies of 6,692 cancer-free men, 11% of which had precancerous lesions during their lifetimes. Of that group, 494 who went on to develop cancer and matched them with 494 who did not were selected for study.

Their findings concluced that being overweight or obese increased the risk of prostate cancer by a staggering 57%. This association was found to be true in all cases of prostate cancer -low and high grade as well as nonaggressive and aggressive.

The study may help doctors in deciding what kind of follow-ups are necessary with obese men. Andrew Rundle, lead author and associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia, stated that the study may help identify which men need to be followed up with more closely.

Their results were published online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.