Causal link between low cholesterol and cancer is unlikely

doi:10.1136/bmj.311.7017.1438c

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A C Sonnichsen,
C Otto,
W O Richter,
P Schwandt

Senior house officer Junior house officer Professor Professor Klinikum Groβhadern, Ludwig Maximilians Universitat, 81377 Munich, Germany

EDITOR,--Goya Wannamethee and colleagues report that very low total cholesterol concentrations (<4.8 mmol/l) are associated with an excess risk of cancer and other non-cardiovascular diseases, which seems to be due to preclinical cancer, chronic ill health, smoking, and heavy drinking.1 Yet even patients with clinically overt cancer rarely have such low cholesterol concentrations. We studied the cholesterol concentrations in 200 consecutive patients with various malignancies (83 men, mean (SD) age 62.6 …