A new study has linked high triglyceride levels with biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer.
Among men who had surgery for prostate cancer, those with elevated triglyceride levels before surgery were 35 percent more likely to show signs of a cancer recurrence than men with normal preoperative levels.
The study reinforces the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, said epidemiologist Elizabeth Platz.
Platz, who studies cancer prevention at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, was not involved with the current study.
“We all need to think about modifying behaviors that promote well being in general – not smoking, reducing obesity, increasing physical activity while decreasing sedentary time,” she said.
Investigators studied the records of men who were not taking statins before radical prostatectomy at six Veterans Affairs hospitals in California, Georgia and North Carolina.
After prostate cancer treatment, 293 of the 843 men in the study had a rising level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
The researchers expected to find more cancer recurrence in men with high pre-surgical cholesterol levels. But they did not.
Instead, they found that for the overall group, only high triglycerides raised recurrence risk, according to the study published October 10 online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
But when the researchers looked only at the 325 men with abnormally high preoperative cholesterol levels, they found the risk of recurrence increased 9 percent for each 10 mg/dL in total cholesterol above the abnormal cutoff of 200 mg/dL.
More striking, though, was their finding that among men with abnormally low levels of HDL cholesterol (that is, below the desired level of 40 mg/dL), every extra 10 mg/dL of HDL brought the risk of recurrence down by 39 percent.
“Our findings suggest that controlling lipid levels is not only important for cardiovascular disease but also may have a role in prostate cancer,” said lead author Emma Allott from Duke University Medical School in Durham, North Carolina.
The study can’t prove that cholesterol and triglycerides caused the recurrence of prostate cancer.
Still, Allott said, “Controlling your lipid levels is well known to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. Here we’re showing that there may be a role for prostate cancer.”
The researchers call for additional studies of the role of cholesterol in prostate cancer growth. They also note that other studies have linked cholesterol-lowering statins with a reduced risk of prostate cancer recurrence.