Serum cholesterol and primary brain tumours: A case-control study

Abstract

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the study of the relationship of serum cholesterol with cancer incidence and mortality (Hlatky & Hulley, 1981; Levy, 1982; Feinleib, 1983;McMichael et al., 1984). A number of studies have shown an inverse association in men, though usually not in women, whereas in other reports there was no relationship. The most consistent (inverse) association was for cancer of the colon. Two population-based prospective studies in Israel, the Kiryat Hayovel Community Health Study in Jerusalem and the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Study showed higher levels of serum cholesterol (with mean differences of about 20 mg dl-1 and 16 mg dl1 respectively) in the small numbers (5 and 17 respectively) of subjects who died of intracranial tumours during follow-up (Kark et al. and Goldbourt et al., unpublished observations). A small case-control comparison showed substantially higher serum cholesterol levels in 7 hospitalized brain tumour patients than in hospitalized controls with a variety of debilitating diseases (Basu et al., 1974).The objective of our study was to test the hypothesis that a positive relationship exists between high levels of serum cholesterol and primary brain tumours (including meningeal tumours). Subjects and methodsA case-control study was performed based on the hospital records of male Jewish residents of Israel [20][21][22][23][24], and of 10 years at older ages) and year of hospitalization. For two cases, controls were found only from the subsequent year. The controls for each case were chosen randomly from

Smoking and blood pressure in 15 year olds in Dunedin, New Zealand.

“…The possibility cannot be excluded that the results of the previous case-control studies may be artefactual because an existing brain tumour may have caused a spurious increase in the serum cholesterol concentration. [1][2][3] In conclusion, our results, which are based on the largest population reported so far, do not support the conclusion that a high serum cholesterol concentration is a risk factor for brain tumours.…”

Metabolic syndrome in relation to risk of meningioma

“…Only one previous cohort study systematically quantified the relation between MetS and the risk of brain tumors and reported a statistically significantly increased risk of meningioma in patients with MetS (HR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.11–1.54) [ 8 ]. Numerous studies investigated individual components of MetS, such as arterial hypertension [ 9 ], impaired glucose tolerance/diabetes [ 9 – 12 ], or dyslipidaemia [ 13 , 14 ] and showed positive [ 9 , 12 – 14 ] or null associations with meningioma risk [ 10 , 11 ]. A number of cohort [ 15 – 19 ] and case-control [ 20 , 21 ] studies examined the association between adiposity and meningioma, the results of which were summarized in a recent meta-analysis that reported a positive relation between the two [ 22 ].…”

Hypotheses Concerning Roles of Dietary Energy, Cured Meat, and Serum Tocopherols in Adult Glioma Development

“…The absence of an association may have resulted from underreporting of energy consumption by individuals with high body mass indexes [16] or confounding by energy expenditure [17]. Finally, serum cholesterol was positively [18][19][20] but inconsistently [21,22] associated with brain tumor risk. As would be predicted from an understanding of cholesterol biosynthesis [23], serum cholesterol is positively associated with energy intake among countries.…”