According to the scholars of the American Cancer Society, aggressive prostate cancer may pounce upon the men who are likely to suffer from obesity than those who lose weight.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer (except for skin cancer) in U.S. men, becoming more common with age.
Statistically:
The study was based on 70,000 US men. The researchers (in 1992) collected data from men regarding their present weight and their weight 10 years earlier. Then they traced new prostate cancer cases among the men from 1992 to 2003.
They concluded that those who accounted losing at least 11 pounds from 1982 to 1992 were about 40% less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer between 1992 and 2003 than those with little weight change in the 1982-1992 times.
Most of the men who took part in the study were 55-74 years old in 1992 and none had any kind of cancer.
The researchers calculated their body mass index (BMI) – an indication of appropriate weight-by using the figures of their height and weight.
Almost two-thirds of the men were overweight in 1992. 36% had normal BMI, 50% were overweight and 14% were obese.
21% said they had lost more than 5 pounds, and 35% said they had gained 5 or more pounds between 1982 and 1992.
Tracking Prostate Cancer
By the mid of 2003, more than 5,000 men reported being diagnosed with prostate cancer but they weren’t aggressive.
Men who had lost weight between 1982 and 1992 were less prone to have been identified with aggressive prostate cancer.
Thus, they concluded that ‘men who lose weight may reduce their risk of prostate cancer.’
Limitations of the study:
The investigation doesn’t take into consideration the childhood obesity. Therefore, the lifelong influence of obesity on prostate cancer risk isn’t clear from this study.
The researchers didn’t assign anyone to lose weight, so this was an observational study rather than a direct test of weight loss for prostate cancer prevention.
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