Fatal cancer risk for men with high blood calcium levels say US ...

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Fatal cancer risk for men with high blood calcium levels say USresearchers


Last updated at 4:02 PM on 03rd September 2008 Add to My Stories
Men with increased levels of calcium in their blood may have a muchhigher risk of getting fatal prostate cancer, US researchers saidtoday.
Their findings indicate a simple blood test may identify men athigh risk for the most dangerous prostate tumours. And the goodnews is that there are already drugs available that cut calciumlevels in the blood.
The researchers tracked 2,814 men in a government health survey inwhich they gave blood samples that revealed their calcium levels.
The men in the top third of blood calcium levels had 2.68 times therisk of developing fatal prostate cancer later in life compared tothose in the bottom third, the study found.


Close up: prostate cancer cells multipying


'If serum calcium really does increase your risk for fatal prostatecancer, that's wonderfully exciting because serum calcium levelscan be changed,' said Gary Schwartz of Wake Forest UniversitySchool of Medicine, who helped lead the study.

'One way to think of it is to think of the tremendous advances inthe control of cardiovascular disease that occur from understandingthat things like serum cholesterol predict heart attack,' MrSchwartz added.
Doctors have struggled to find ways to predict if a man who getsprostate cancer will have a tumour that poses little danger, as isoften the case, or one that is a killer.
Blood calcium was not very predictive of whether a man would getnon-lethal prostate cancer, but strongly indicated whether a manwould get a fatal case, the researchers discovered.
Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed form ofcancer in men worldwide, with about 780,000 men diagnosed per year.
Mr Schwartz said it is unclear whether it is the actual calcium orblood levels of parathyroid hormone - which is supposed to keepcalcium levels at normal levels in the bloodstream - that israising the risk.
Either way, he said there are drugs that can lower them.