1. ¹Department of Internal Medicine, Kantonsspital St.Gallen, Switzerland
2. ²Division of Experimental Therapy, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital/The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
3. ³Department of Urology, Kantonsspital St Gallen, Switzerland
4. ⁴Department of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, Kantonsspital St Gallen, Switzerland
5. ⁵Genome Research Institute, University of Cincinnati, USA
6. ⁶Institute of Cell Biology, ETH Hoenggerberg, Zuerich, Switzerland
7. ⁷Department of Medical Oncology, Kantonsspital St Gallen, Switzerland

Correspondence: M Joerger, Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, Slotervaart Hospital, Louwesweg 6, 1066 EC AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands. E-mail: apmsj@slz.nl

⁸These two authors contributed equally to this publication

Received 1 July 2005; Revised 8 August 2005; Accepted 10 August 2005; Published online 13 September 2005.

Abstract

We retrospectively studied anthropometric and laboratory parameters (including serum triglycerides, cholesterol), as well as comedication in 504 patients diagnosed with prostate cancer between January 1997 and August 2002 at a single referral center, and compared these patients with 565 age-matched patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia. A positive correlation was found between serum triglycerides and prostate cancer (odds ratio: 1.148/mmol/l; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.003–1.315; P<0.05) after correcting for age, body mass index, diabetes and comedication with statins. Hypertriglyceridemia may increase the risk of prostate cancer, and the prognostic relevancy of serum triglycerides should be studied prospectively.