Late Life Weight Gain Related To Prostate Cancer Risk

Recent research, as published in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, has revealed that body mass in younger and older adulthood, and weight gain between these periods of life, may influence a man's risk for prostate cancer. However, there is evidence to prove that this risk varies among different ethnic populations.

"The relationship of certain characteristics, such as body size, with cancer risk may vary across ethnic groups due to the combined influence of both genes and lifestyle," said lead researcher Brenda Y. Hernandez, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii.

Obesity is a risk factor for common cancers like colorectal cancer and breast cancer in post-menopausal women. However, the influence of body size on prostate cancer risk is not entirely understood. Hernandez and colleagues examined this relationship in a multiethnic population consisting of blacks, Japanese, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and whites, and compared differences among age groups. They used the Multiethnic Cohort, a longitudinal study of men aged 45 to 75 years old established in Hawaii and California from 1993 to 1996.

Source-Eurekalert
TAN