HHS HealthBeat (July 19, 2012)

Weight and the prostate

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study indicates men with early stage prostate cancer are more likely to have worse-looking tumors if they are overweight or obese.

At the University of Illinois at Chicago, researcher Vincent Freeman saw the association in data on 119 men.

“The risk of having larger and more aggressive-appearing tumors that are more likely to recur after surgery, did increase with increasing body mass index, which is a measure of body weight relative to frame.” 

Freeman says the risk was three times higher for overweight men and six times higher for obese men, compared with healthy-weight men.  So he suggests achieving and staying at a healthy weight.

The study presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: July 18, 2012