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Modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer mortality in London: forty years of follow-up in the Whitehall study

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Abstract

Background

The determinants of prostate cancer––aside from established but non-modifiable risk factors of increased age, black ethnicity, and a positive family history––are poorly understood.

Methods

We examined the association of a series of baseline socioeconomic, behavioral, and metabolic characteristics with the risk of prostate cancer mortality in a 40-year follow-up of study members from the original Whitehall cohort study. During this period there were 578 prostate cancer deaths in 17,934 men.

Results

After adjustment for a series of baseline covariates, results from proportional hazards regression analyses indicated that marital status (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: widowed/divorced vs. married: 1.44; 0.95, 2.18), raised blood cholesterol (tertile 3 vs. 1: 1.35; 1.11, 1.65), and increased physical stature (tertile 3 vs. 1: 1.37; 1.09, 1.74) were associated with death from prostate cancer, although statistical significance at conventional levels was not apparent in all analyses. There was no evidence that physical activity, smoking habit, socio-economic status, component of either blood pressure or diabetes predicted the risk of death from this malignancy herein.

Conclusions

In the present study, there was a suggestion that marital status, blood cholesterol, and height were risk indices for death from prostate cancer.

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Acknowledgments

The original screening of the Whitehall study was funded by the Department of Health and Social Security and the Tobacco Research Council. David Batty is a Wellcome Trust Fellow; Michael Marmot is a MRC Research Professor. Martin Shipley is supported by the British Heart Foundation and Mika Kivimaki by the Academy of Finland, Finland, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL036310-20A2) and the National Institute on Aging (R01AG034454-01), NIH, US. The Medical Research Council (MRC) Social and Public Health Sciences Unit receives funding from the MRC and the Chief Scientist Office at the Scottish Government Health Directorates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    G. David Batty, Mika Kivimäki & Martin J. Shipley

  2. Medical Research Council Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, UK

    G. David Batty

  3. Clinical Trial Service Unit and Epidemiological Studies Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Robert Clarke

  4. Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    George Davey Smith

Authors
  1. G. David Batty
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  2. Mika Kivimäki
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  3. Robert Clarke
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  4. George Davey Smith
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  5. Martin J. Shipley
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Correspondence to G. David Batty.

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Batty, G.D., Kivimäki, M., Clarke, R. et al. Modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer mortality in London: forty years of follow-up in the Whitehall study. Cancer Causes Control 22, 311–318 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9691-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9691-6

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