Heart disease could be a risk factor for prostate cancer, suggests a new study.

If this relationship is confirmed in future research, means that changes in lifestyle to reduce the risk of heart disease, such as losing weight, exercising and a healthy diet may also protect men from prostate cancer, say researchers Duke Cancer Institute.

“What’s good for the heart may be good for the prostate,” said in a news release from Duke Medicine study author, Dr. Jean-Alfred Thomas II, a postdoctoral fellow in the division of urology.


Thomas and colleagues analyzed data from 6.390 men in a four-year clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of a drug to reduce prostate cancer risk. Of these men, 547 reported a history of coronary artery disease before the start of the trial.

The Duke researchers found that men with coronary artery disease had a risk 35 percent higher for prostate cancer over time, and a risk 24 percent higher to be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the first two-year study, compared with men who did not have heart disease.

Four years after the start of the trial, men with coronary artery disease had a risk 74 percent higher for prostate cancer than those not suffering from heart disease.

“We control a variety of risk factors like hypertension and use of stating or aspirin,” said Thomas. “We have a good understanding about what causes the relationship, but we see this partnership.”

The study is published online this month in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Bio markers & Prevention.

The coronary artery disease is the leading cause of death among U.S. adults. States and prostate cancer is the second most lethal cancer among men in the country the statement said.