Taller Men, Beware Of Prostate Cancer

Men, don't wish to become tall, dark and handsome anymore. Well atleast not the tall bit. While shorter men have always found it a little tougher to survive in this word than their taller male buddies because of unwritten laws of social acceptable, now they have a reason to rejoice. A new study performed at the University of Oxford, UK has found that taller or and obese men are at a higher risk of getting prostate cancer and dying because of it.

Prostate cancer and related findings

Prostate is a walnut-sized male reproductive gland that is responsible for producing the seminal fluid that nourishes the sperms. Cancerous growth of cells in this gland can make urinating difficult or painful. The study, published in the open access journal BMC Medicine, was based on data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). This is a prospective European cohort of 141,896 men, which includes 7,024 incident prostate cancers, 726 high-grade and 1,388 advanced stage prostate cancers, and 934 prostate cancer deaths.

The results pointed to the increased risk of high grade disease and death from prostate cancer in taller men by as much as 21% and 17% respectively with every increase of 3.9 inch in height. In terms of obesity, it was found that waist circumference is a much more reliable indicate or obesity than BMI for older men, which aligned to the age of the people in the study. Findings suggested a 18% greater risk of death from prostate cancer and a 13% greater risk of high grade cancer with every ten centimetres increase in waist circumference. This can be attributed to the hormonal changes in obese men that can lead to aggressive prostate cancer, though the causation has not been established beyond doubt yet.

According to lead author Aurora Perez-Cornago, "The data illustrate the complex association of adiposity and prostate cancer, which varies by disease aggressiveness. These results emphasize the importance of studying risks for prostate cancer separately by stage and grade of tumor." With further work, strategies for prevention should also be clear she says.

Surprisingly while the study has not shown conclusive evidence for growth of slow prostate cancer in taller or obese men which is the general tumor disease, but rather aggressive prostate cancer that affects a smaller population and where the tumor grows very rapidly. Generally, prostate cancer is very difficult to detect in early stages and also varies according to each person's body shape.

The data was collected in eight countries - Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Germany and Greece.

(Inputs from ANI)

Also read: Coffee can cut down your risk of prostate cancer

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