Bone mineral content (BMC) declines with age to a less extent in men with prostate cancer, especially those with high-risk disease, than in healthy men, according to a study.
Using data from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, Stacy Loeb, MD, of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, and colleagues studied 519 men who had serial BMC measurements from 1973 to 1984. During a median overall follow-up of 21.1 years after the final BMC measurement, 76 men (14.6%) were later diagnosed with prostate cancer (18 high-risk and 58 not high-risk). BMC tended to decline less in men with high-risk cancer than in those with low-risk disease, the investigators reported in BJU International (2010; published online ahead of print).
“The biology underlying the lesser decline in BMC among men with prostate cancer remains unclear,” the authors concluded, “but suggests that host factors in the bony milieu might be associated with prostate cancer development and progression.”
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