prostate cancer recurrence in both black and white men, says a U.S. study
that challenges previous research suggesting obesity may be more
significant for black men.
"Not so. Obesity leads to worse cancer in both groups," study senior
author Dr. Stephen Freedland, an associate professor of urology and
pathology at the Duke University Medical Center Prostate Center, said in a
news release from the school.
Freedland and study author Dr. Jayakrishnan Jayachandran, a urology
oncology fellow, examined the medical records of 1,415 prostate cancer
patients who had undergone a radical prostatectomy. They found that race
had no influence on the relationship between obesity and the
aggressiveness of the cancer.
"We found that higher BMI [body-mass index] was associated with
significantly increased risk of cancer recurrence for both blacks and
whites," Jayachandran said in the news release.
The reason why obesity increases the risk of prostate cancer recurrence
isn't clear, but altered hormone levels might play a role.
"Obesity is associated with more estrogen and less testosterone, and it
may be that lower testosterone promotes more aggressive tumors as recent
studies have suggested," Jayachandran said.
Other obesity-related changes in the production of hormones, such as
insulin, insulin-like growth factor or leptin, may also be involved in the
development of more aggressive prostate cancer.
"This is something we simply do not understand, but we are actively
studying all of these factors," Jayachandran said.
The study appears in the current issue of Cancer.
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about prostate cancer.
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