From Oncology Practice, 23 April 2013:
Obesity was associated with an increased risk of precursor lesions among men with an initial benign prostate biopsy result, according to a nested study of nearly 500 prostate cancer cases and matched cancer-free controls.
Further, obese men also were more likely to have benign findings on initial core needle biopsy or transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) and to then go on to develop prostate cancer within 4 years after their procedure.
“This is one of the first studies to assess associations between obesity and PIN (prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia),” reported Dr. Andrew Rundle of Columbia University, New York, and colleagues. The research was published in the April 23 online issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (doi: 10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-12-0965). With approximately 1 million prostate biopsies conducted annually in the United States – two-thirds of which return negative results – obesity may be a factor to consider in the follow-up of individuals after an initial benign procedure.
In the study, obese men were more than twice as likely to have PIN detected in their initial benign specimens (OR = 2.17; 95% CI 1.13–4.15).
After adjustment for factors such as family history and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, obesity at the time of the initial procedure was also associated with a significant increase in the incidence of prostate cancer, but only within 1,538 days of the initial procedure, which was the median duration of follow-up (OR = 1.95; 95% CI, 1.09-3.48). Read more.
Bianca Nogrady 