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The assessment of total cholesterol level as a risk factor for cancer mortality was studied from data of the Paris Prospective Study of Coronary Heart Disease. A total of 7603 French male government employees aged 43-52 years were followed for an average of 6.6 years. One hunderd and thirty-four cancer deaths were registered with a mean survival time of 4.9 +/- 2.9 years. At entry in the study, future cancer cases were older than survivors and had a lower corpulence index and lower cholesterol value (212 vs 223 mg/100 ml, SD = 43 mg/100 ml) than those of survivors. The intitial cholesterol level did not differ significantly among cancer sites. The mean cholesterol value increased steadily with survival time (p < 0.02) and reached the mean survivors level in men with survival time longer than seven years. Longitudinal cholesterol measurements obtained among 81% of future cancer cases showed a mean decrease, after an average of 3.0 years, comparable to the one estimated from croos-sectional data. The association between low cholesterol and cancer mortality during a period up to seven years before death is not likely to represent an etiologic link but in all probability reflects the advance of the clinical course of cancer.
Cambien et al. (Mon,) studied this question.