According to two separate studies, lower cholesterol does not lead to cancer, but rather, lower cholesterol can reduce the risk of high-grade prostate cancer.
The information collected for the research was combined from two different studies, one from Finland and the other using data collected on over 5,500 men who had enrolled themselves in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial.
Scientists and doctors once thought that cholesterol levels and the development of prostate cancer were related, when in fact the level of cholesterol in men had no significant effect on whether or not they developed prostate cancer.
“For many reasons, we know that it’s good to have a cholesterol level within the normal range,” said Elizabeth Platz, Sc.D., M.P.H., associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of the cancer prevention and control program at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Centre.
High-grade prostate cancers, also called “tigers”, can grow and spread quickly. They are characterized by a “Gleason score”, a measurement of aggressiveness, of between eight and 10.
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men apart from skin cancer, accounting for approximately one in four of all new cancer cases diagnosed in men annually.