Low Cholesterol Reduces Cancer Risk

BETHESDA, Md.Low blood cholesterol levels actually reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, according to two new studies. The findings dispel the theory that low cholesterol causes cancer.

Data from a study that has followed more than 29,000 Finnish men for 18 years showed both the reason for fears that low cholesterol levels raised the risk of cancer and the reason why those fears were unjustified, said Dr. Demetrius Albanes, a senior investigator at the U.S. National Cancer Institute, and an author of one of two reports in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Cholesterol levels below the generally recommended 200 milligrams per deciliter were associated with an 18 percent higher overall risk of cancer, but the increased risk applied only to cases diagnosed in the early years of the study. Higher levels of HDL cholesterol, which protects coronary arteries, were associated with a 14 percent lower risk of all cancers over the entire length of the study, he said.

Additionally, data on the more than 5,500 men enrolled in the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial showed that those with cholesterol levels lower than 200 had a 59-percent lower risk of developing the most dangerous form of prostate cancer.

Low cholesterol levels were more likely to be seen in men whose prostate cancers had high Gleason scores, a measure of the disruption of the prostate gland's normal structure caused by the malignancy, the study found. Prostate cancers with the highest Gleason scores are regarded as the most difficult to treat.