Calcium Levels Predict Prostate Cancer
Study Shows High-Normal Calcium Level in Blood Linked to Fatal Prostate Cancer
Sept. 3, 2008 -- Men with high-normal levels of calcium in their blood may have an increased risk for developing fatal prostate cancer, early research suggests.
Men in the study with high-normal levels had a threefold greater risk for fatal prostate cancer later in life than those with the lowest average calcium levels (but still within the normal range).
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If confirmed, the finding could help identify men at risk of dying from prostate cancer long before the disease is diagnosed, researchers say.
It could also lead to a simple strategy for reducing risk in men with high-normal serum calcium.
"If we can show that men with high-normal serum calcium really are three times as likely to develop a fatal prostate cancer, we might be able to alter this risk with existing drugs that have been proven to be very safe," study researcher Gary G. Schwartz, PhD, of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, tells WebMD.
Calcium and Prostate Cancer
There is good evidence that men whose diets include a lot of calcium or those who take calcium supplements are at increased risk for prostatecancer.
But since there is little relationship between dietary calcium and calcium in the blood, the new study does not address the question of how much calcium men should eat.
Doctors often measure serum calcium during routine blood tests.
"Many of your body's functions run on calcium, just like your laptop runs on electricity," Schwartz says. "Too little calcium in the blood can cause convulsions and too much can lead to a coma. Since your body cannot afford to oscillate between convulsions and coma, the range of serum calcium is tightly controlled."
Other laboratory studies suggest that calcium and parathyroid hormone -- which regulates calcium levels in the blood -- promote prostate cancer cells' growth, the study researchers report.
In their newly published study, Schwartz and colleague Halcyon G. Skinner, PhD, MPH, of the University of Wisconsin sought to test the laboratory association in humans.
They did this by examining data from a national health survey that examined participants between 1971 and 1975, known as NHANES I, and from a follow-up survey years later.