MEN with high cholesterol may be up to twice as likely to develop prostate cancer as those with normal levels, research suggests.

Italian scientists have found evidence of a link between the amount of fat carried in the blood and the cancer. The findings support a possible correlation indicated by previous studies. The researchers, from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, in Milan, also found a link between gallstones and prostate cancer.

The study, published online yesterday in Annals of Oncology, asked 1,294 men aged up to 75 with prostate cancer about their health and compared them with a “control” group of 1,451 men with non-cancerous illnesses. Francesca Bravi, the lead author of the study, said that men with prostate cancer were about 50 per cent more likely to have had high cholesterol levels.

“The association was somewhat stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had been diagnosed before they were 50 and for men over 65, where there was an 80 per cent greater likelihood of high cholesterol levels,” she said. “We also found that prostate cancer patients were 26 per cent more likely to have suffered from gallstones, with an apparently higher relationship in thinner men.”

Chris Hiley, the head of policy and research at the Prostate Cancer Charity, described the study as “very interesting” and said: “It suggests that if men make lifestyle changes and adopt a healthy, low- cholesterol diet it might reduce their risk of prostate cancer.”

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