Latest research findings from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche in Italy suggest men with high cholesterol levels have a 50 percent higher risk of developing prostate cancer.
While high cholesterol has long been associated with many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, the link to prostate cancer has only been supported by limited evidence.
This latest study, published in the Annals of Oncology found a direct association between high cholesterol and prostate cancer risk.
The study investigated cholesterol levels of over 1200 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 1400 controls with no prostate cancer.
After researchers accounted for possible complicating factors such as body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption and family history of the disease, they found that high cholesterol was associated with a 50 percent increase the risk for prostate cancer. The risk was found to be even higher in men over the age of 65, whose risk of cancer increased by 80 percent.
Over half a million men worldwide are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year, with over 200,000 deaths from the disease. The lowest incidence of the cancer is in Asia and the Far East, in particular India, Japan and China.
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