Low Cholesterol Elevates Mortality Risk in Patients with Kidney Cancer

Lower cholesterol is always better but in some rare cases, especially patients with kidney cancer, having low levels of cholesterol increases the risk of dying.

New research documented in BJU International reveals that low cholesterol increases kidney cancer patient's risk of dying. The study suggests that the health care specialists treating and monitoring patients with kidney cancer should consider cholesterol levels as a key factor.

Recent studies conducted highlighted that changes in the levels of cholesterol as well as other lipids have a strong association with the development, progression and prognosis of various cancers.

In this study the researchers examined the blood cholesterol levels in 867 subjects with renal cell carcinoma before they underwent kidney surgery. After which the patients were followed a median of 52 months.

Prior to the treatment, having low levels of blood cholesterol led to more advanced stages of tumor and cancer that gradually spread during the follow up period.  Also those having high cholesterol levels had 43 percent reduced risk of mortality from their cancer when compared to those with low cholesterol.

What remains a mystery is how levels of cholesterol affect the prognosis of patients diagnosed with  kidney cancer.  They however assume that certain components of cholesterol have an impact on the activity on the cancer-related pathways, which affects the growth of tumor as well how it spreads.

"As this was a hypothesis-generating study, our findings should be confirmed in independent datasets. If confirmed, patients with low cholesterol may be considered high-risk and may be treated or followed up more aggressively," said Dr. Klatte.

According to the American Cancer Society, over 50,000 individuals are diagnosed with kidney cancer and over 200,000 kidney cancer survivors thrive in the U.S. Last year, more than 1.3 million new cancers were diagnosed in the United Sates.