IANS

New York, Nov 12: Does obesity adversely affect the survival chances of patients suffering from some forms of cancer? Yes, says a new study.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that a greater body mass index (BMI) was a risk factor for prostate cancer-related deaths. Obese men were almost twice as likely to die from locally advanced prostate cancer as patients who had a normal BMI at diagnosis.

Findings of the study have been published in the forthcoming issue of the journal Cancer.

According to the researchers, led by Jason Efstathiou, while it is known that obesity is a risk factor in some kinds of prostate cancer, its impact on survival is less understood.

Efstathiou's team found that being overweight at the time of diagnosis was a unique and independent risk factor for death from prostate cancer.

Compared to men with normal BMI (of under 25), men with BMI between 25 and 30 were over 1.5 times more likely to die due to the cancer.

After five years, the prostate cancer mortality rate for men with a normal BMI was less than 7 percent compared to about 13 percent for men with BMI of over 25.