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• Prostate cancer and visceral obesity

Abdominal obesity has been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Specifically, studies examining the relation between weight and prostate cancer have resulted in inconsistent findings. One reason for this could be the failure to distinguish the contribution of central and peripheral obesity. Computed tomography (CT) quantifies subcutaneous and internal abdominal (visceral) fat (VF), allowing measurements of visceral fat and determination of its relation with disease risk. Therefore, a recent study in Obesity Research investigated the relationship between visceral fat accumulation as measured by CT and the occurrence of prostate cancer.

Sixty-three incident, histologically confirmed, prostate cancer cases in Portugal were confirmed. Sixty-three age-matched healthy community subjects were included in the study as well. Body weight and height were measured and BMI was calculated. Body fat distribution was assessed by CT. Subcutaneous fat area (SF) was defined as the adipose area between the two defined contours and total fat area (TF) was defined as the sum of VF and SF.

Prostate cancer patients had a significantly higher mean TF, reflecting a clearly higher mean VF. A significantly higher risk of prostate cancer was found for each increase corresponding to one standard deviation in VF, TF, and SF. A significantly higher risk of prostate cancer was found for subjects in the upper one-third of VF and upper one-third of V/S ratio, whereas it was not significant for SF.

These findings suggest a role for visceral obesity, quantified for CT, as a risk factor for prostate cancer. However, ethnicity and family history of prostate cancer could be a potential source of confounding in the results. CT is more accurate and more reproducible than anthropometry for assessing body fat distribution. The action of the adipocytokines secreted by visceral fat cells, steroid hormone disturbances and increased levels of insulin or other hormones noted in visceral obesity may explain this association.