Prospective study of serum cholesterol and site-specific cancers

• Published in: Journal of clinical epidemiology Vol. 45; no. 3; pp. 287 - 292
• Main Authors: Chyou, Po-huang, Nomura, Abraham M.Y., Stemmermann, Grant N., Kato, Ikuko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY Elsevier Inc 01.03.1992; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aged; Asian Americans; Biological and medical sciences; Cholesterol - blood; Colonic Neoplasms - blood; Digestive System Neoplasms - blood; Epidemiology; Hawaii; Humans; Japan - ethnology; Lung Neoplasms - blood; Male; Medical sciences; Neoplasms - blood; Prospective Studies; Prospective study; Relative risk; Risk; Serum cholesterol; Tumors; Hawaii; Polynesia; Oceania; Japan; Serum cholesterol; Prospective study; Relative risk; Human; Prospective; Cohort study; Organ specificity; Ratio; Malignant tumor; Epidemiology; Japanese; Cholesterol; Public health; Incidence
• ISSN: 0895-4356; 1878-5921
• DOI: 10.1016/0895-4356(92)90089-6

From 1965 to 1968, 7716 Japanese-American men were examined and tested for serum cholesterol. After 22 years, 1380 incident cancer cases were identified. Of the site-specific cancers, only colon cancer cases had a significantly lower mean serum cholesterol value than that of noncases (213.0 mg/dl vs 219.0 mg/dl). When the study subjects were separated into either a low, middle or high group, based on their serum cholesterol values, there was a significant inverse trend for cases of oral/pharyngeal/esophageal cancer combined. The association was present for cases diagnosed within 10 years of examination ( p = 0.012), but not for cases diagnosed after 10 years. This suggests that the inverse asociation is due to the metabolic effects of undiagnosed oral/pharyngeal/esophageal cancer upon serum cholesterol levels. These results are discussed in relation to other studies on serum cholesterol.