Low Cholesterol May Shrink for high-risk prostate cancer

Men with low cholesterol are less likely than those with higher levels of cancer of high grade prostate - an aggressive form of the disease with a worse prognosis develop, according to results from the Johns Hopkins University A collaborative study. In a prospective study of over 5,000 men from the United States, epidemiologists now say they have evidence that the heart clogging fats in low-risk for a man of this form of cancer by almost 60 per cent can decrease.

"For many reasons, we know that good cholesterol in the normal range," says Elizabeth Platz, Sc.D., MPH, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, Public Health and co director of cancer prevention and fight against the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. "Now we have more evidence that only some of the benefits of lower cholesterol may have a lower risk of potentially fatal cancer of the prostate .

Normal range of less than 200 mg / dl (milligrams per deciliter of blood), total cholesterol defined.

Platz and colleagues published similar results in an initial study in 2008 and 2006, they combined the use of anti-cholesterol statin to lower the risk of prostate cancer advanced.

For the current study, space, analyzes the members of the Southwest Oncology Group, and other employee data from 5586 men aged 55 and older enrolled in the trial of prevention of prostate cancer from 1993 to 1996. Some 1251 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer during the study period.

Men who have cholesterol levels below 200 mg / dl had a risk less than 59 percent of developing cancer of high grade prostate cancer, which tend to grow and spread quickly. High-grade cancers were identified through a ranking called pathological Gleason score. Scores at the upper end of the scale between acht and 10, show most types of cancer than worrying about the speech, samples of diseased prostate examined microscopically.

The study was square, cholesterol had no significant effect on the entire spectrum of the incidence of prostate cancer, only those who were of high quality, "she said.

Square warned that if the group took into account factors that skew the results, such as smoking history, weight, family history of prostate cancer, and cholesterol, other things might have influenced the results. An example is whether the people in the study were taking cholesterol-lowering drugs at the scheduled time of blood collection, a data point, researchers who analyze soon.

The results of the ongoing study will be published online November 3 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Even the magazine is a companion document to the National Cancer Institute show that lower cholesterol levels in men with a decline of 15 per cent of total cancer cases transferred.

Cholesterol can affect cancer cells at a level where control of critical signaling pathways affecting cell survival, "says Platz. "Cancer cells use these pathways to survive normal cycle of life and cell death to flee.

She said that targeting cholesterol metabolism One way to treat and prevent disease can be, but will be tested further.