Increased body mass index as a risk factor in localized prostate cancer treated by radical prostatectomy

Abstract Background The association between obesity and aggressive forms of prostate cancer is controversial. We compared preoperative body mass index (BMI) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels as predictive risk factors for increased prostate weight and disease aggressiveness. Materials and methods This retrospective review of 464 patients with localized prostate cancer who underwent radical prostatectomy between March 1999 and October 2006 examined relationships among clinicopathological variables (BMI, preoperative serum PSA, biopsy and pathologic Gleason score [GS], and whole prostate weight) using linear and multinomial logistic regression analysis. We used multivariate regression modeling adjusting for age, year of surgery, PSA or BMI, pathologic stage, and GS. Results Median age of patients (51% cT1c, 69% pT2) was 61 years (41–76), mean BMI 26.50 kg/m2 (standard deviation = 4.82), mean PSA 6.8 ng/ml (0.67–27.2), median prostate weight 51 g (12–200), median biopsy GS 6 (3–9), and median pathologic GS 7 (4–10). GS was upgraded in 227 patients (49%) from median GS 6 to 7 ( P