Wald N J, Thompson S G, Law M R, Densem J W, Bailey A
Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London, UK.
Br J Cancer. 1989 Jun;59(6):936-8. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1989.198.
In the BUPA study, a prospective study of 22,000 men attending a screening centre in London, the mean serum cholesterol level of the 267 men who developed cancer was 6.66 mmol l-1, not significantly different from the mean level of 6.72 mmol l-1 among the 525 unaffected controls matched for age, smoking history and the calendar quarter of their attendance at the screening centre. There was, however, a significant difference in serum cholesterol levels among men who were diagnosed as having cancer less than 2 years after the date of blood collection (6.49 mmol l-1 for the 116 cancer subjects and 6.78 mmol l-1 for the 224 controls (P = 0.02)) but not in men who developed cancer 2-11 years after blood collection (6.79 mmol l-1 for the 151 cancer subjects and 6.68 mmol l-1 for the 301 controls). The observation that the association between low serum cholesterol and cancer was confined to men in whom a diagnosis of cancer was made within 2 years after the date of blood collection suggests that the low serum cholesterol is a metabolic consequence rather than a precursor of the cancer. Our results, which are consistent with the majority of other published studies, indicate that a low serum cholesterol is not a cause of cancer.
在保柏（BUPA）研究中，对伦敦一家筛查中心的22000名男性进行了一项前瞻性研究。在267名患癌男性中，血清胆固醇平均水平为6.66毫摩尔/升，与525名年龄、吸烟史以及前往筛查中心的日历季度相匹配的未受影响对照组的平均水平6.72毫摩尔/升相比，无显著差异。然而，在采血日期后不到2年被诊断出患癌的男性中，血清胆固醇水平存在显著差异（116名癌症患者为6.49毫摩尔/升，224名对照为6.78毫摩尔/升（P = 0.02）），但在采血后2 - 11年患癌的男性中则无显著差异（151名癌症患者为6.79毫摩尔/升，301名对照为6.68毫摩尔/升）。血清胆固醇水平低与癌症之间的关联仅限于在采血日期后2年内被诊断出癌症的男性，这一观察结果表明血清胆固醇水平低是癌症的代谢后果而非癌症的先兆。我们的结果与其他大多数已发表的研究一致，表明血清胆固醇水平低不是癌症的病因。
