A healthy lifestyle is critical in preventing a wide variety of diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or several types of cancers, including advanced prostate cancer. There are still not enough scientific studies on this matter, and more research is necessary to fully understand the relation between obesity and prostate cancer.
When it comes to advanced prostate cancer prevention, the scientific community still lacks adequate information on the initial causes of the disease. As a result, health practitioners have not been able to offer patients insights into effective means to prevent the disease.
Recently, the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) published a review of the latest news and updates concerning prostate cancer prevention as part of its own Continuous Update Project, to keep researchers and physicians educated on the latest findings related to this malignancy.
Using all of the latest data on prostate cancer research, the WCRF rated evidence based on both strength and reliability of all research combined into either convincing or probable categories, when the data is strong enough that it can be used to make confident affirmations or result in public recommendations.
As such, the organization discovered that obese or overweight men have higher risks of developing severe and aggressive forms of prostate cancer.
The meta-analysis from WCRT joined smaller pieces of information that when put together facilitate the understanding of a bigger scientific picture. Excess of body fat increases the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer. Researchers could not find a connection between other forms of prostate cancer and obesity, which is still one of the greatest challenges they have to face: to distinguish severe and fatal forms of prostate cancer from other less aggressive subtypes.
Further research is currently being developed in an attempt to gather more information on the link between obesity and prostate cancer. Nonetheless, these findings could be a starting point and should be considered by the public. Having a healthier lifestyle and keeping weight within appropriated ranges is important to prevent several diseases and conditions; this study emphasises its importance as another strategy to prevent advanced prostate cancer as well.