Positive Health Online

Abstract

EICHHOLZER and colleagues, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland eichholz@swissonline.ch write that low serum cholesterol has been associated with an increased risk of cancer mortality in various studies, which has led to uncertainty regarding the benefits of lower blood cholesterol . The authors evaluated the association between low blood cholesterol (<5.16 mmol/L) and cancer, placing special emphasis upon the potential confounding effect of antioxidant vitamins .

Background

Methodology

Plasma concentrations of cholesterol and antioxidant vitamins were measured in 1971-73 in 2974 men working in Basel, Switzerland. In 1990, the vital status of all participants was assessed.

Results

290 of the participants had died from cancer: 87 from lung, 30 from prostate, 28 from stomach and 22 from colon cancer. Group means for plasma cholesterol concentrations did not differ significantly between survivors and those who died from cancer at any of the studied sites. With plasma cholesterol, vitamins C and E, retinol, carotene, smoking and age accounted for in a Cox model, increased total cancer mortality in lung, prostate and colon but not in stomach cancer mortality was observed in men >60 years of age with low plasma cholesterol. When the data from the first 2 years of follow-up were excluded from the analysis, the relative risk estimates remained practically unchanged with regard to lung cancer, but decreased for colon, prostate and overall cancer.

Conclusion

Increased cancer mortality risks associated with low plasma cholesterol were not explained by the confounding effect of antioxidant vitamins, but were attributed in part to the effect of pre-existing cancer .

References

Eichholzer M et al. Association of low plasma cholesterol with mortality for cancer at various sites in men: 17-y follow-up of the prospective Basel study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 71(2): 569-74. Feb 2000.