High cholesterol diet may fuel
prostate cancer growth
March 18, 2005
High levels of cholesterol in the blood may accelerate
the growth of prostate tumours, new laboratory research
suggests.
Investigators at Boston's Children Hospital made the
observation in mice. They speculate cholesterol is fuelling
the growth of prostate cancer.
Higher cholesterol levels didn't trigger new cancers
in the mice, the researchers found.
"What we're looking at is progression, not initiation
of a tumour," said the team's leader, Michael Freeman,
of the hospital's urological diseases research centre.
Six weeks after human prostate cancer cells were injected
into the mice, incidence of cancer more than doubled
among mice fed a high-cholesterol diet.
Tumours were also larger in mice consuming a cholesterol-rich
diet, the team reports in the April 1 issue of the Journal
of Clinical Investigation.
Scientists say they have little understanding of the
relationship between cholesterol and cancer at the cellular
level.
Injecting human tumours into mice isn't a perfect model
of how cancer cells behave in people, but the animals
are a valuable tool for cancer researchers.
Unlike healthy cells, tumours do not respond to normal
molecular cues to die. In this case, the cholesterol
appeared to trigger the cells to resist death and multiply
and grow instead.
Freeman's team said their findings may explain why
prostate cancer is more common in developed countries,
where people tend to eat a diet high in cholesterol.
Test-tube studies also suggested a cholesterol-lowering
drug called a statin seemed to inhibit growth of prostate
tumours, the researchers reported.
Source:www.cbc.ca
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