Obesity, age, ethnicity, and clinical features of prostate cancer patients

Approximately 36.5% of the U.S. adults (≥ 20 years old) are obese. Obesity has been associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and several types of cancer. The present study included 1788 prostate cancer patients who were treated with radical prostatectomy at the Ochsner Health System, New Orleans, Louisiana, from January, 2001 to March, 2016. The patient's medical records were retrospectively reviewed. Body mass index (BMI), age, ethnicity (Caucasians versus African Americans), clinical stage, Gleason score, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels were retrieved. The relative risk of the patients was stratified into low risk and high risk groups. Associative analyses found that BMI was associated with age, clinical stage, Gleason score, but not ethnicity, PSA levels, or the relative risk in this cohort. Age was associated with ethnicity, clinical stage, Gleason score, and PSA levels, as well as the relative risk. Ethnicity was associated with Gleason score and PSA levels as well as the relative risk, but not clinical stage. These findings suggest that obesity is associated with advanced prostate cancer with stage T3 or Gleason score ≥ 7 diseases, and age and ethnicity are important factors that are associated with the clinical features of prostate cancer patients.