title: Serum cholesterol and cancer in the NHANES I epidemiologic followup study. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
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.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D012306:Risk; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol