Does metabolic syndrome or its components associate with prostate cancer when diagnosed on biopsy?

Purpose: To investigate the association between metabolic syndrome and prostate cancer risk in Turkish men.

Methods: We examined data from 220 patients with prostate cancer and 234 men in a control group with benign biopsy results, who had a serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level ⩾ 4 ng/ml, or an abnormal digital rectal examination finding and who underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy at two main training and research hospitals between February 2009 and April 2013. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed according to The Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Turkey metabolic-syndrome criteria. Age, total PSA, waist circumference, body mass index, lipid profiles, fasting blood sugar level, blood pressure level and metabolic syndrome were considered for analysis.

Results: A total of 454 patients were enrolled: 85 cases in group 1 (38.6% of 220 prostate cancer cases) and 104 control subjects in group 2 (40.4% of 234 controls) were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. Higher ages and lower high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol were two parameters that were significant only in the prostate cancer group with metabolic syndrome. There was no significant predictor factor for prostate cancer alone; however, higher triglycerides (odds ratio [OR], 1.286; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09-1.82 and 1.142; 95% CI 1.06-1.62) and fasting glucose levels (OR, 1.222; 95% CI 1.08-1.61 and 1.024; 95% CI 1.07-1.82) were significant predictors in both the prostate cancer group and control group.

Conclusions: We found little evidence to support the hypothesis that increased incidence of metabolic syndrome (or its components) contributes to increased incidence of prostate cancer. A larger, prospective, multicentre investigation is mandatory to confirm if there is any relationship between metabolic syndrome and prostate cancer.