Split prostate cancer four ways, Willett says.

Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 98, No. 14, July 19, 2006 NEWS 959 infl ammation is more important in cancers that occur later in a man’s life. “ For better or worse, aging is like a slow castration process. Our endogenous hormones, particularly our anabolic hormones like testosterone and insulin-like growth factor, decline, ” said Willett, while presenting the hypothesis at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting earlier this year. Other facts also support this model. As men age, they carry more fat, which secretes infl ammatory factors. And moderate exercise, which can improve insulin resistance and thus infl ammation, lowers an older man’s risk of disease but appears to have little or no benefi t in younger men. Not all risk factors have such dramatically different effects on young and old men. For example, men of all ages may benefi t from taking the antioxidant lycopene, with the risk of disease dropping with increased consumption. However, men over 65 appear to derive more benefi t than men younger than that age, according to Willett and colleagues’ studies (relative risk = 0.67 for older men and 0.89 for younger men). Because lycopene helps reduce damage caused by infl ammation, these data further support the idea that infl ammation plays a larger role in late-onset disease than early-onset cases, Willet said. “ I would have thought it was the opposite, ” said William Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., professor of oncology and associWalter Willett Split Prostate Cancer Four Ways, Willett Says