Corpulence is the crucial factor: Association of testosterone and/or obesity with prostate cancer stage. By Jentzmik et al. 2014
Key sentence from the paper: “This is the first study showing that obesity, but not low serum testosterone levels, is significantly associated with high grade and metastatic disease in men diagnosed with clinically localized prostate cancer.”
For the full abstract, see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24865433
Commentary: A big controversy in modern medicine centres around whether low testosterone is a significant problem for middle-age and older men with or without prostate cancer. Surprisingly, although ADT is used to treat advanced prostate cancer, more often than not, men diagnosed with advanced disease are likely to be low in testosterone rather than high in the hormone. This has led to much speculation about whether testosterone replacement therapy is good or bad for patients who have been successfully treated for a localized prostate cancer.
This paper has an incredibly important conclusion that obesity per se is the problem for men with high-grade disease. Low testosterone is often associated with obesity, and we’ve known for a long time that being overweight is not good for patients with prostate cancer. These authors have done great service in showing us that the problem is obesity itself and not testosterone.
Jentzmik F, Schnoeller TJ, Cronauer MV, Steinestel J, Steffens S, Zengerling F, Al Ghazal A, Schrader MG, Steinestel K, Schrader AJ. 2014. Corpulence is the crucial factor: Association of testosterone and/or obesity with prostate cancer stage. International Journal of Urology. 27 May 2014 [Epub ahead of print]