Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 330, Issue 8554, 8 August 1987, Pages 298-301
The Lancet

SERUM CHOLESTEROL AND CANCER IN THE NHANES I EPIDEMIOLOGIC FOLLOWUP STUDY

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(87)90890-7Get rights and content

Abstract

The relation between total serum cholesterol and cancer incidence and mortality was studied in a cohort based on a probability sample of the United States population. 5125 men (yielding 459 incident cancers and 258 cancer deaths) and 7363 women (398 cases, 186 deaths) were initially examined in 1971-75 and followed up for a median of 10 years. Men in the lowest cholesterol quintile had nearly double the risk of those in the highest quintile for both incidence and mortality. Among women a similar relation was seen for cancer mortality, but cancer incidence in the lowest quintile was only 1.2 times that of women in the highest quintile. The inverse cholesterol-cancer relation in men was present for cholesterol determinations made 6 or more years before diagnosis of cancer. It may be premature to dismiss the inverse relation between serum cholesterol and cancer simply as a preclinical marker of disease.

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