Overweight men with prostate cancer are more likely to suffer recurrences and don’t benefit as much from treatments as men with better weight profiles, a new study has found.
Researchers at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago said the findings indicate heavy men with early-stage prostate cancer can boost their odds of survival simply by losing a few pounds.
"Men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer and who have excess body weight as indicated by a higher-than-normal body mass index (BMI) have an increased risk for cancer recurrence after treatment," said lead researcher Dr. Vincent L. Freeman. "The association was not limited to obese men; even being just overweight based on BMI was associated with an increased risk for prostate cancer recurrence."
Freeman’s study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Richmond this week, analyzed the risk of recurrence in 119 prostate cancer patients awaiting surgery. They tracked BMI, which measures body weight relative to height, and the men’s blood prostate-specific antigen level.
Researchers found men with the highest BMI scores were nearly eight times more likely to have prostate cancer recurrence after treatment compared with those who were not overweight. Even men who were slightly or moderately overweight were 3.5 to 6.5 times more likely to be at risk of a recurrence.