Obesity In Men Associated With Prostate Cancer Risk, Study

Findings of a new study reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology showed that long-term use of a cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, appears to raise the risk of prostate cancer in obese men.

“Given the epidemic of obesity in the US and the frequent use of statins, the positive association we observed raises substantial concern as to the saety of these widely prescribed agents,” Dr. Janet Stanford and colleagues of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle reported in the journal.

Stanford and his team researchers matched 1,001 men with prostate cancer diagnosed between 2002 and 2005 from King Country, Washington.

“Overall we found no support for the current hypothesis that statin use may reduce risk of prostate cancer,” Stanford said in an interview in Reuters Health. However, “among obese men, current use of a statin was associated with a 50-percent increase in risk of prostate cancer ; and use for five or more years was associated with 80 percent increase in risk of the disease; both of these risk estimates were statistically significant,” Stanford and his team told Reuters Health.