HONOLULU, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest ethnicity may account for why body weight affects prostate cancer risk in some men but not others.
The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, found several links, including excessive weight gain between younger and older adulthood, associated with increased risk of advanced and high-grade prostate cancers in white men.
However, being overweight in older adulthood was associated with decreased risk of localized prostate cancer among Japanese men.
Excessive weight gain between younger and older adulthood was observed to increase the risk of advanced and high-grade prostate cancers in white men and increase the risk of localized and low-grade disease in black men, the study said.
"The relationship of certain characteristics, such as body size, with cancer risk may vary across ethnic groups due to the combined influence of both genes and lifestyle," study leader Brenda Hernandez of the University of Hawaii's Manoa's Cancer Research Center of Hawaii said in a statement.
The study was based on data from the Multiethnic Cohert -- a longitudinal study of men 45-75 years in age in Hawaii and California between 1993-1996 that included blacks, Japanese, Hispanics, native Hawaiians and whites.
