April 16, 2015
Obesity has a profoundly different effect on prostate
cancer risk in African-American as compared to non-Hispanic white men. Obesity
in black men substantially increases the risk of low- and high-grade prostate
cancer, while obesity in white men moderately reduces the risk of low-grade
cancer and only slightly increases the risk of high-grade cancer, according to
the first large, prospective study to examine how race and obesity jointly
affect prostate cancer risk.
The findings, published April 16 in JAMA Oncology, were
based on a nationwide study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center and the University of Washington. The research team, led by
senior author Alan Kristal Dr.P.H, a member of the Fred
Hutch Public Health Sciences Division, and first and corresponding author Wendy Barrington Pd.D. an
affiliate public health investigator at Fred Hutch and an assistant professor
at the University of Washington School of Nursing, found that black men who are
obese (a body-mass index of 35 or higher) had a 122 percent increased risk of
low-grade and an 81 percent increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer
compared to those who were of normal weight (a BMI of 25 or lower).
In contrast, among non-Hispanic white men, those who
were obese had a 20 percent reduced risk of low-grade and only a 33 percent
increased risk of high-grade prostate cancer compared to those of normal
weight. “For unknown reasons, African-American men have a much higher risk of
prostate cancer than non-Hispanic white men. Different effects of obesity might
explain at least some of the difference in risk and, more importantly,
preventing obesity in African-American men could substantially lower their
prostate cancer risk,” Kristal said.
According to the National Cancer Institute, black men
have the highest prostate cancer rates of any racial or ethnic group in the
U.S., they tend to get more aggressive forms of this cancer and are more than
twice as likely to die of the disease as compared to non-Hispanic white men.
These elevated risks for African-American men are due to both social
disadvantage, such as access to resources, as well as biologic factors,
Barrington said.
This study suggests obesity, which is influenced by
both social and biologic factors, may play an important role behind what
Kristal and Barrington call the “African-American race effect” on disparities
in prostate cancer risk. More than a third of the U.S. population is classified
as obese, and the prevalence of obesity among African-American men is slightly
higher 37 percent compared to 32 percent in non-Hispanic white men,
Barrington said.
“Given that obesity is more common among
African-Americans, [the prostate cancer-obesity connection] is an important
question to study, as it may shed light on how to reduce black/white
disparities in prostate cancer incidence,” she said.
The study was based on data collected during the
Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial, known as the SELECT Study, an international clinical
trial that tested whether supplemental selenium and/or vitamin E could prevent
prostate cancer. More than 35,000 men from across the U.S., Canada and Puerto
Rico participated.
Study participants, including nearly 3,400
African-American men, were followed carefully for the development of cancer and
other diseases, and a single study pathologist examined prostate tissue from
the men diagnosed with prostate cancer to determine whether it was low- or
high-grade disease. The trial ended early, because after an average of five
years there was no evidence that either of the supplements lowered prostate
cancer risk.
The study did, however, provide a treasure trove of
high-quality data on risk factors such as race, height, weight and family
history, as well as the use of prostate-cancer screening. The obesity finding
was “serendipitous” and “potentially of enormous importance,” Kristal said. “In
an unrelated analysis we wanted to statistically control for effects of
obesity. We noticed that the associations of obesity with prostate cancer risk
in African-American men were very different than those for non-Hispanic white
men.”
What drives the disparity? “There is some evidence that
the biological responses to obesity, such as inflammation and glucose
tolerance, are more pronounced in African-American men; both inflammation and
insulin may promote cancer development,” Kristal said. Obesity might also have
an impact on genes that control prostate cancer growth, “but frankly this is
just speculation,” he said. “This is the next question for researchers to ask,
because the answer will likely tell something very important about prostate
cancer development and prevention.”
While the study’s findings concerning obesity and
prostate cancer risk in black men are novel and need to be replicated, they
underline the ongoing public health toll of the obesity epidemic.
“Obesity prevention and treatment should be a priority
for all Americans, but in particular for African-American men,” Barrington
said. “Prostate cancer kills 45 out of 100,000 African-Americans and only 19
out of 100,000 white men, and obesity is contributing to this important health
disparity. Health care providers need to consider obesity prevention for their
African-American male patients as a targeted strategy to reduce prostate cancer
disparities.”
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