[Clinical and histopathological parameters of prostate cancer: influence of anthropometric indices]

Adipose tissue is increasingly considered as an endocrinal active organ and may have an influence on the development and progression of prostate cancer. Adverse body fat distribution, considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is not reflected by the body mass index (BMI).

The purpose of this work was to assess anthropometric indices which provide a better estimate of body fat distribution and to evaluate their association with clinical and histopathological parameters of prostate cancer.

In patients scheduled for radical prostatectomy between March 2011 and March 2013, height, weight, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference were measured, then the BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. The relationships between anthropometric measures and indices and clinical and histopathological features of PCA were evaluated with uni- and multivariate analyses.

In 668 patients available for evaluation, obesity rates were 22.8 %, 50.6% and 30.2 % as defined by BMI ≥ 30, WHR ≥ 1 and WHtR ≥ 0.6, respectively. On univariate analysis, WC and WHtR ≥ 0.6 correlated with tumor volume (TV) > 2.1 cm(2) (p < 0.05), respectively. WC and WHtR were independent predictors of a TV ≥ 2.1 cm(2) (p < 0.05) and a WHtR ≥ 0.6 was an independent predictor of a TV ≥ 2.1 cm(2) (p < 0.018, risk ratio 1.506, 95 % confidence interval 1.072-2.115).

In general a higher degree of adiposity seems to correlate with a higher tumor volume. Whether anthropometric indices have prognostic impact needs to be clarified during follow-up.