Obesity and prostate cancer screening, incidence, and mortality in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial

Background: Though obesity, measured by body mass index (BMI), is an established risk factor for several cancer sites, there is conflicting evidence on whether obesity increases prostate cancer risk or mortality and, if it does, whether it increases risk directly or indirectly by affecting prostate cancer screening efficacy.Methods: We examined associations between BMI and prostate cancer screening outcomes, incidence, and mortality in men randomly assigned to the intervention arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial (n = 36 756) between 1993 and 2001. Participants received annual screening with the prostate-specific antigen test and digital rectal exam. Associations between baseline BMI and screening outcomes were assessed via multinomial logistic regression, and associations with prostate cancer incidence and mortality were assessed via Cox proportional hazards regression.Results: Individuals with higher BMI were less likely to screen positive via the prostate-specific antigen test and/or digital rectal exam and more likely to have an inadequate screen (all P-trend < .01). Higher BMI was inversely associated with prostate cancer incidence (per 5 kg/m(2) BMI increase: hazard ratio [HR] = 0.94, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.91 to 0.97), including incidence of early stage (HR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.90 to 0.97) and advanced-stage (HR = 0.91, 95% CI = 0.82 to 1.02) disease, but positively associated with prostate cancer mortality (HR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.06 to 1.37). The association with mortality was not modified by screening outcome (Pinteraction = .13).Conclusions: Within this screened population, individuals with higher BMI had lower risk of prostate cancer diagnosis but higher risk of prostate cancer mortality. As higher BMI was not positively associated with advanced-stage prostate cancer risk, the increased mortality is unlikely to be due to delayed prostate cancer detection.

Automated summary

This study found that obesity indirectly increases the risk of prostate cancer mortality by affecting the efficacy of prostate cancer screening. Higher BMI was negatively associated with prostate cancer incidence but positively associated with prostate cancer mortality. However, this association was not influenced by screening outcomes.