von Hafe P et al. (2004) Visceral fat accumulation as a risk factor for prostate cancer. Obes Res 12: 1930–1935

Recent work by von Hafe et al. has shown a link between visceral fat and the risk of prostate cancer. Previous studies in this area have given conflicting results, possibly because visceral and subcutaneous fat accumulation have not been analyzed separately.

Von Hafe and colleagues from Portugal studied 63 patients with incident prostate cancer and 63 age-matched controls. Using a single CT scan of the abdomen at the level of the fourth lumbar vertebra, the investigators assessed the body fat distribution of each participant. Although the two groups were similar in terms of body-mass index, the mean area of abdominal fat was significantly higher in men with prostate cancer than in the control participants, mainly because of a higher mean area of visceral fat. Men whose ratio of visceral fat to subcutaneous fat lay in the upper tercile were more than 14 times more likely to have prostate cancer than those with lower ratios (odds ratio 14.5, 95% CI 4.45–47.19). No relationship was seen between disease stage and body fat distribution.

The authors suggest that the observed relationship between visceral fat and prostate cancer risk might be associated with cytokines secreted by visceral fat cells, steroid hormone imbalances or increased insulin levels. As all the participants in this study were white, von Hafe et al. note that the results may not apply to other ethnic groups.