Obesity linked to higher death rate from prostate cancer
Men who are overweight or obese when diagnosed with prostate cancer are at greater risk of death – even with treatment.
A study by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that a greater body mass index (BMI) at the time of cancer diagnosis is an independent risk factor for prostate cancer-related deaths.
Overweight and obese men (men with BMI of 25 at the time of diagnosis) were nearly twice as likely to die from locally advanced prostate cancer as patients who had a normal BMI at the time of diagnosis.
The study authors found that being overweight or obese at the time of diagnosis was a unique, independent risk factor for death from prostate cancer. Compared with men with normal BMI (BMI 25), men with BMI between 25 and 30 were more than 1.5 times more likely to die from their cancer.
Similarly, men with BMI of 30 were 1.6 times more likely to die from their disease compared with men with normal range BMI. After five years, the prostate cancer mortality rate for men with a normal BMI was less than 7% compared with about 13% for men with BMI of 25.
The study appears in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
