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Body fat is thought to serve as a reservoir for male hormones and proteins that may promote the growth of tumors. Excess body fat can also inhibit certain immune system cells that normally prevent tumors from progressing.

To investigate the relationship between obesity and the risk of advanced prostate cancer, researchers reviewed medical data from 860 patients with advanced prostate cancer who were undergoing radical prostatectomy--surgical removal of the prostate--over a 6-year period.

Overall, 21% of the subjects were obese and 49% were overweight. Obese patients were more likely to have undergone radical prostatectomy at a younger average age, to have an elevated Gleason score--a method used to classify the aggressiveness of prostate cancer--and to have had their cancer spread to other organs.

Higher rates of obesity may also help to explain why black men tend to have higher rates of advanced prostate cancer and higher mortality rates from prostate cancer at younger ages than men of other ethnic groups as results of a recent study have suggested. Whether genes or environmental factors such as dietary fat and excess body weight are responsible, however, is not clear.

Blacks have the highest average body mass index compared to whites and Asians. Body mass index is a measurement of weight in relation to height.

The Urology (2001;58:723-728) noted that the study authors recommended that future studies further investigate the role of obesity in the higher rates of advanced prostate cancer seen in black men.