BLOKES with a spare tyre around their waist are significantly more likely to die of prostate cancer, a major study reveals.
It found that every extra four inches around the middle raises risk by seven per cent.
Oxford University experts said the results are the first proof that a bulging gut is bad news for the disease.
Experts calculate there would be 1,300 fewer annual prostate cancer deaths if the average weight of a British bloke fell by five units of BMI.
For a 5’ 10” man it equates to losing around two-and-a-half stone.
One theory is that a large waistline makes prostate cancer harder to detect, meaning cases are picked up later when they are harder to treat.
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Being tubby is known to trigger inflammation that could fuel the cancer, while obesity also makes a key test less reliable.
Around 52,000 men a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer – with around 12,000 deaths.
Lead researcher Dr Aurora Perez-Cornago, from Oxford University, said: “We found that men with higher total and central adiposity have a higher risk of dying from prostate cancer than men with a healthy weight.
“Knowing more about factors that increase the risk of prostate cancer is key to preventing it.
“Age, family history and black ethnicity are known risk factors but they are not modifiable, and so it is important to discover risk factors that it is possible to change.
“Our latest results provide another reason for men to try to maintain a healthy weight.”
The analysis, presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht, looked at 2.5 million men from 19 studies.
It also examined data from more than 200,000 men in the UK Biobank.
The research, published in the journal BMC Medicine, found every 10 cm (3.9 inch) increase in waist circumference raised the odds of dying from prostate cancer by seven per cent.
And every five-point increase in BMI increases the risk by 10 per cent.
Karis Betts, from Cancer Research UK who helped fund the research, said: “Further studies to investigate whether obesity increases the risk of developing prostate cancer in the first place are needed.
“While the jury is out on the relationship between prostate cancer and obesity, it’s still important to keep a healthy weight as obesity causes 13 other types of cancer.”
Simon Grieveson, from Prostate Cancer UK said: “This large-scale study suggests that being overweight is associated with an increased risk of dying from prostate cancer.
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“Whilst these results are compelling, more research is needed to fully understand the biological relationship between obesity and prostate cancer.
“Maintaining a healthy weight can protect against many cancers, but it is important to remember that prostate cancer can affect men of all shapes and sizes.”
