Aim: To investigate the effect of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on prostate cancer risk.
Materials and methods: This hospital based study was carried out using data retrieved from the register maintained in the Department of Biochemistry of a tertiary care hospital of Kathmandu, Nepal between 31st December, 2011 and 31st October, 2013. The variables collected were age, serum cholesterol, serum calcium, PSA, fasting blood glucose, serum insulin. Analysis was performed by descriptive statistics and testing of hypothesis using Excel 2003, R 2.8.0, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows Version 16.0 (SPSS Inc; Chicago, IL, USA) and the EPI Info 3.5.1 Windows Version.
Results: Of the total 125 subjects enrolled in our present study, 25 cases were of PCa and 100 were healthy controls. The mean value of fasting plasma glucose was 95.5 mg/dl in cases of prostatic carcinoma and the mean value of fasting plasma insulin was 5.78 μU/ml (p value: 0.0001*). The fasting insulin levels μU/ml were categorized into the different ranges starting from ≤2.75, >2.75 to ≤4.10, >4.10 to ≤6.10, >6.10μU/ml. The maximum number of cases of prostatic carcinoma of fasting insulin levels falls in range of >6.10μU/ml. The highest insulin levels (>6.10μU/ml) were seen to be associated with an 2.55 fold risk of prostatic carcinoma when compared with fasting insulin levels of (<2.75 μU/ml).
Conclusions: Elevated fasting levels of serum insulin appear to be associated with a higher risk of prostate cancer.