# Report: Obese Men With Prostate Cancer Face Higher Death Risk



## SamanthaNY (Mar 20, 2007)

I have heard from several doctors that almost all men, if they live long enough, will eventually face prostate cancer. When caught early, there are numerous treatment options, and the recovery rate is impressive. 

Though it's rather grim in its findings, I'm hoping this news today will be taken as even more incentive to get tested often. 


_"March 20 (HealthDay News) -- Men who are obese when they're diagnosed with prostate cancer are 2.6 times more likely to die of the disease than normal-weight men, new findings suggest.

The study, by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, included 752 recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients who were followed for about 10 years. Of the men in the study, 50 died of prostate cancer, and 64 died of other causes.

"I was very surprised by the findings. We found the prostate-cancer-specific mortality risk associated with obesity was similar regardless of treatment, disease grade or disease stage at the time of diagnosis," senior author Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Program in Hutchinson's Public Health Sciences Division, said in a prepared statement.

"If a man is obese at the time of diagnosis, he faces a 2.6-fold greater risk of dying as compared to a normal-weight man with the same diagnostic profile, regardless of whether he has radical prostatectomy or radiation therapy, whether or not he gets androgen-deprivation therapy, whether he has low- or high-grade disease, and whether he has localized, regional or distant disease," Kristal said.

The study also found that obese men with local or regional prostate cancer -- disease that's confined to the prostate or has spread to surrounding tissue -- are 3.6 times more likely than normal-weight men to have their cancer spread to distant organs (metastatis).

It's believed that both inflammation and steroid hormones are factors in the link between obesity and increased risk of prostate cancer metastasis and death, the researchers said.

"We are now beginning to appreciate that obesity is a massive inflammatory condition, and obesity also increases levels of serum estrogens and growth factors that can promote cancer growth," Kristal said.

The study is published in the March 15 issue of Cancer."_


Looking forward to the *Health Forum* so important stuff like this can be easily accessible on one board.


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## imfree (Mar 20, 2007)

SamanthaNY said:


> I have heard from several doctors that almost all men, if they live long enough, will eventually face prostate cancer. When caught early, there are numerous treatment options, and the recovery rate is impressive.
> 
> Though it's rather grim in its findings, I'm hoping this news today will be taken as even more incentive to get tested often.
> 
> ...



Thanks for the heads-up, Samantha. It looks like early detection
of the inevitable is the only fighting chance I'll get!


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## Zoom (Mar 21, 2007)

Ditto on a new forum, except I'm waiting to see it called either *Propaganda*, *Lies* or *Unverified Findings*.


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## SamanthaNY (Mar 21, 2007)

Zoom said:


> Ditto on a new forum, except I'm waiting to see it called either *Propaganda*, *Lies* or *Unverified Findings*.


Well, seeing as I'm hoping for it to include information such as this thread - and other very real things we face, perhaps we'll need two new forums.


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## bigplaidpants (Mar 21, 2007)

SamanthaNY,

Thanks for posting this. I want to hear news like this that is based on good research....despite that fact that it feeds low-lying anxiety.

It's hard to get past the initial shock of helplessness that hits when media outlets continue to spew out an endless stream of bad news in terms of health. Growing up in the 80's when the food industry was making everything either "diet" or "no fat" in response to heart disease, I've grown up assuming I would probably die of a heart attack. Now, the prostate. 

I'm only 33!

I'm embarrassed to admit it. But, I often need to stop, take a breath, and remember how to think about all this. I don't want to put my head in the sand.

thx (Can I call you a fat realist?  )


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## imfree (Mar 21, 2007)

bigplaidpants said:


> SamanthaNY,
> 
> Thanks for posting this. I want to hear news like this that is based on good research....despite that fact that it feeds low-lying anxiety.
> 
> ...



BBP, I've been over 250 at 5'8" for over 25 years, going from 291 in
2001 when I first went on insulin, to 400 now, and I've survived to age 51!
It never ceaces to amaze me, how many thinner, healthier-looking men died
before reaching my age. I'm on oxygen, too. Hahaha!!!, so much for those
people out there who think I'm dangerous!LOL


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## Fuzzy Necromancer (Mar 23, 2007)

I don't understand. 



> included 752 recently diagnosed prostate cancer patients who were followed for about 10 years. Of the men in the study, 50 died of prostate cancer, and 64 died of other causes.



The sample. No where does it state what proportion of obese men were in the group, or if there were any at all. Without a control group, this sample is useless.


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